Brian Zahnd
@BrianZahnd
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Founding pastor of @WOLC . Author of eleven books, including The Wood Between the Worlds, When Everything's on Fire, and Sinners In the Hands of a Loving God.
St. Joseph, Missouri
Joined February 2009
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Last Seen Profiles
This is what it means to take the name of the Lord in vain.
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One of the most vital things an American Christian can do right now is resist the hijacking of Christian faith by American nationalism.
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In the end, Southern Baptists were more comfortable with Donald Trump than with Beth Moore.
Just think about that.
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Jesus won’t help you make your nation great again.
He doesn’t care about that.
Jesus will help you love your neighbor as yourself.
For this is the Law and the Prophets.
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If I'm reading my Bible right, a primary criteria by which God judges nations is how they treat refugees.
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For what it's worth, I've been trying to follow Jesus for 43 years and I've been a pastor for 36 years, and I've never once felt that my religious liberty was under threat in the United States.
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We all make errors in our theology; you and me both.
So my recommendation is to err on the side of love.
Why?
Because...
God is not doctrine
God is not denomination
God is not war
God is not law
God is not hate
God is not hell...
God is Love.
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The last word's of
@rachelheldevans
's last blog post (Ash Wednesday):
Death is a part of life. My prayer for you this season is that you make time to celebrate that reality, and to grieve that reality, and that you will know you are not alone.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. -RHE
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How you react to BLM today
Is how you'd've reacted to
MLK back in the day
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“When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross." -Sinclair Lewis
Today it arrived.
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It’s such a tragedy when people mistakenly think that leaving fundamentalism requires leaving Christian faith.
As a pastor, it’s these sincere, beleaguered souls I most want to help.
It’s entirely possible to deconstruct fundamentalism/evangelicalism and still believe in Jesus!
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Toting a Bible, waving a Bible, swearing on a Bible, shouting, "I believe the Bible!" can be a very effective way of ignoring what the Bible actually says about caring for the poor, the sick, the immigrant, and the imprisoned.
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If you can't keep a theological conservative who is as gifted, loyal, and generous as
@BethMooreLPM
in your theologically conservative denomination, you're probably doing something wrong.
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I choose to live my life unarmed.
I do so because in my long and winding journey, I’ve come to understand that to live gently in a violent world is part of the counterculture of following Christ.
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When your answer is "No" to this question:
"Is there anything your leader could do that would endanger your support of him?"
...you are in a cult.
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“If [Bill Clinton] will lie to or mislead his wife and daughter, what will prevent him from doing the same to the American public?” -
@Franklin_Graham
, 1998
"[Trump's] thing with Stormy Daniels is nobody’s business." -
@Franklin_Graham
, 2018
Well, which is it?
#PartisanPolitics
🙄
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The Crucifixion is not a defeat overturned by the Resurrection; the Crucifixion is a victory revealed by the Resurrection.
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A consistent pro-life Christian ethic opposes death-friendly practices like abortion, capital punishment, torture, war, racism, predatory capitalism, environmental exploitation, unchecked proliferation of guns, ignoring the poor, refusing the refugee, and unaffordable healthcare.
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When James and John wanted to call down fire on a Samaritan village they cited biblical precedent. But Jesus rebuked them, saying, “You don’t know what spirit you are of.”
Just because it’s “biblical” doesn’t mean it’s in keeping with the spirit of Jesus.
Selah.
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Thought experiment:
At the judgment seat of Christ which would you most fear being guilty of?
A. Unlawfully crossing an international border with your children.
B. Taking children from their parents in order to punish the parents.
(I know my answer.)
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If people are lying by the side of the road saying, "I can't breathe," do we pass them by on the other side mumbling something about abortion and how all lives matter, or do we go to them and try to help?
What do you think Jesus would say?
#WhoIsMyNeighbor
?
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You can justify the death penalty with the Bible; as you can slavery, genocide, and women held as property. But you have to ignore Jesus to do it. And ignoring Jesus is the opposite of what it means to be a Christian.
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I’m the kind Christian who would rather place my faith in the one who preached the Sermon on the Mount than in a braggadocious, womanizing, thrice-married, oft-bankrupt, bullying, reality-TV huckster. I still think character counts. But I guess I’m just a hardcore conservative.🤷🏻♂️
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I'm perplexed by Christians who confidently tell me who Jesus is not allowed to save.
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After nearly fifty years of reading the Bible virtually every day, I believe I can accurately sum up the politics of the Torah, the Prophets, and Jesus like this:
Make sure everyone has what they need and protect the little people from the big people.
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Since Twitter is talking about the Mark of the Beast.
The Mark of the Beast is not a vaccine.🙄
The Mark (666) of the Beast (Rome) is idolatrous allegiance to the emperor cult.
666 = Caesar Nero
The Mark of the Beast is religious devotion to a political leader, not a vaccine.
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If your conception of the kingdom of God can fit comfortably into the political platform of the Republican or Democratic party, you have not yet seen the kingdom of God.
For God so loved the world that he did not send a political party.
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“We love Adolf Hitler because we believe firmly and profoundly that he was sent to us by God to save Germany.” -Hermann Göring, 1934
This is what religious nationalism looks like.
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Christianity Today is probably the most important evangelical publication in America. It was founded by Billy Graham. And based on their Christian convictions CT is calling for Donald Trump to be removed from office. This is significant and I hope evangelicals will pay attention.
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Moses: Hebrew Lives Matter
Pharaoh: LAW & ORDER!!
Then came the plagues.
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Dear NRA beholden Congress:
I’m a pastor and I can handle the offering of prayers. That’s my job. But we need legislators to do their job and legislate. If you have no ideas for legislation other than to maintain the status quo, please resign.
Mournfully,
Pastor Brian Zahnd
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How I Vote as a Citizen of a Superpower:
I vote for candidates and propositions that I believe will do the least harm to those with whom Jesus identifies in Matthew 25:31-46.
The poor.
The sick.
The immigrant
The imprisoned.
This is my basic approach to Christ-informed voting.
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We're going to have two Easter Sundays this year. The first one will be April 12, the second one will be when we gather again in our churches.
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I pastor a church, not a Twitter following. A real real church in Missouri...for 37 years. We have all kinds of people—from newborn to 99, Trumpers and progressives, ICE officers and undocumented immigrants (for real). What we have in common is JESUS...and a culture of kindness.
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@realDonaldTrump
Prediction: History will will be far kinder to Greta Thunberg than to Donald Trump.
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Let us be quite clear about this: there need not be a single war for the purposes of God to be accomplished.
If you think the return of Christ must be preceded by some mega-war in the Middle East, you have been deceived by an atrocious and false eschatology.
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If there's one theological idea I wish I could get American evangelicals to understand, it's that the U.S. is not a kind of biblical Israel, but a kind of biblical Babylon. It's not the conquest of Canaan that is biblically analogous to U.S. Christians, but the exile in Babylon.
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“It’s in the Bible”
≠
What Christ commands.
Things you can justify as “biblical” include...
Wars of conquest
Genocide
Slavery
Women held as property
An eye for an eye
The death penalty
Etc.
“You have heard it said...but I say unto you...” -Jesus
JESUS is Lord, not the Bible.
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Is it good for children?
Is it good for the sick?
Is it good for the poor?
These are the kind of political questions Jesus would ask.
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The kingdom of God doesn’t look like...
Rome in the 4th c.
Byzantium in the 6th c.
France in the 17th c.
England in the 19th c.
America in the 21st c.
The kingdom of God looks like Jesus! Jesus healing the sick, feeding the poor, forgiving the sinner, raising the dead.
Selah.
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It’s almost impossible to be a Christian in a culture where Christians are in power.
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I’ve been preaching and writing about the idolatry of religious nationalism for well over a decade. I’ve said repeatedly that collusion with empire is the greatest threat to Christian witness in America. But still, I never imagined it would become as bad as it is now. I’m sad.
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Can you imagine a church in the first three centuries conducting a Sunday worship service where Roman banners are venerated and Roman legions are present toting weapons of war while Christian worshipers are singing hymns of praise to the Roman Empire? No, no, you cannot. Selah.
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Christians were not persecuted by the Roman Empire for telling people how to go to heaven when they die—Rome didn’t care about religious postmortem claims.
Christians were persecuted by the empire for being viewed as unpatriotic and for confessing that Jesus—not Caesar—is Lord.
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Can you imagine Christians in 219 condemning other Christians for not being patriotic Romans?
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It appears that the Southern Baptists have traded Beth Moore and Russell Moore for Donald Trump.
Worst trade ever.*
* Well, there was the Jesus for Barabbas trade.
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I’m conservative because I recognize there are wisdom traditions.
I’m progressive because I understand the journey is ongoing.
But I have no interest in conservatism or progressivism as ideologies. None.
I’m really just an incorrigible Christian...
...because of Jesus.
Amen.
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“This was never some sort of peaceful protest, this was Charlottesville come home to roost on Capitol Hill.” -Stephen Colbert
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The most vital thing an American Christian can do right now is resist the hijacking of Christian faith by American nationalism.
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Christians who support a tyrants’s warmongering because he has “conservative values” have betrayed Christ.
I don’t know how to say it any plainer.
#Ukraine
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Beware of cultivating perpetual rage. There's much to be angry about, but your soul cannot bear the strain of perpetual rage.
So...
Get outdoors
Go for long walks
Practice formative prayer
Practice contemplative prayer
In everything give thanks
Love one another
Be at peace
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Once we have identified God as a baby born into poverty and peril, a refugee fleeing a Middle East despot, a common laborer living in occupied territory, we have to rethink everything about greatness.
#MAGA
#ChristmasEve
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In light of the news today I prayed three things:
1. That the President and First Lady would recover quickly.
2. That this development would cause America to take Covid more seriously.
3. That America would pull away from the precipice of violence and become more civil.
Amen.
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I see it as my primary task right now to evangelize Christians. I say this without irony.
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The widespread idea among American evangelicals that Jesus Christ endorses unchecked gun proliferation, trillion dollar military budgets, and the practice of state executions reveals how theologically thin American Christianity really is.
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The white knee has been on the black neck for 400 years.
This is an undeniable aspect of the American story.
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"The grace of God means something like: 'Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are, because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid. I am with you.'"
–Frederick Buechner
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Christians should never rejoice in anyone’s death. Not ever.
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Do you know the difference between Jesus and America?
Allow me to help.
Jesus is the eternally risen Christ exalted to the right hand of God and given dominion over the nations.
America is the latest in a long line of empires that rise and inevitably fall.
Jesus is Lord.
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Jesus was willing to die for that which he was unwilling to kill.
Christians under the spell of empire are willing to kill for that which they are unwilling to die.
The cross or the sword?
This is the crucial question that reveals our true allegiance.
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If you're willing to believe a white Republican President is a Christian because he says so, but you refused to believe that a black Democrat President was a Christian when he said so...consider yourself busted.
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I see some rejoicing that infamous people have contracted Coronavirus. This saddens me.
The test case for love of God is love of neighbor. And the test case for love of neighbor is love of enemy.
If we rejoice when harm befalls our enemy we are still far from Christlikeness.
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One of the most vital things an American Christian can do right now is resist the hijacking of Christian faith by American nationalism.
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The biblical test case for love of God is love of neighbor.
The biblical test case for love of neighbor is love of enemy.
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To confess that Jesus is Lord is to simultaneously renounce nationalism.
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Once you pledge allegiance to an ism (conservative or progressive) you have a hard time showing mercy to anyone outside the ism.
Christians must pledge all allegiance to Jesus and show mercy to everyone.
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Religious Left and Religious Right are both dead ends.
There is a Religious Left so exclusively focused on justice issues that it threatens to make Jesus superfluous.
There is a Religious Right that reduces Jesus to a mere factor in a salvation equation or a chaplain of empire.
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If you want to argue that the blatantly cruel policy of taking children away from refugee parents seeking asylum is necessary to keep America from having too many brown people, then just say so. But don't you dare think that you have Jesus or the Bible are on your side! 8/8
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Flies were the fourth plague sent upon Egypt to teach Pharaoh that Hebrew Lives Matter.
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I’m frustrated that everything is politicized in America during this moment of crisis. I want the decision of when churches can gather again to be determined by scientists and doctors seeking the common good, and not to be the signaling of a red/blue, elephant/donkey allegiance.
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If Christianity means a faith and practice formed around Jesus Christ, amen.
But...
If Christianity means hijacking Jesus to serve the interests of nationalism, no way.
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America is an idolatrous empire. She worships many gods. But the cult dedicated to the gun god is the most fanatical and the most devout.
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You probably don’t care that much about my political opinions and I probably don’t care that much about yours—so be it. But to see the first two Native-American women to serve in Congress embracing one another is pretty powerful.
(I hope for a Native-American President someday.)
The first two Native-American women to serve in Congress embrace one another. ❤️😭
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For those of us formed in Christian faith, the Second Amendment is not sacred.
It’s just one of several amendments to an 18th century human document written by Deists.
The Second Commandment and the Second Beatitude, on the other hand, are indeed sacred for Christians.
Amen.
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Did you know that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit?
Kindness!
I take this to mean that people filled with the Holy Spirit are kind people.
So keep in mind that when we’re contending for a particular political party or position, if we’re not kind we’re not of the Holy Spirit.
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You can justify the death penalty with the Bible; as you can slavery, genocide, and women held as property. But you have to ignore Jesus to do it. And ignoring Jesus is the opposite of what it means to be a Christian.
(@ Catholic Christian Bill Barr and his
@TheJusticeDept
.)
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A first time visitor to Word of Life Church asked me why we didn’t display an American flag. This was my answer:
We are not an American church; we are a church belonging to the global body of Christ that just happens to be in America. Instead of a flag we display a cross.
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When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
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Do you know who defends Christians and Christianity?
The Holy Spirit.
And, yes, the Holy Spirit defends the martyrs who lay down their lives for their witness to Christ.
Their witness is preserved.
Christians and Christianity is *not* defended by Caesars — ancient or modern.
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The false prophets depicted in the Bible were always court prophets who prophesied that God was on the side of the rich and powerful.
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@StephenKing
Stephen King is telling us to turn away from fear. Stephen King! That’s how desperate things are.
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The gospel is not a private announcement to private individuals about how to go to heaven when you die. The gospel is a public announcement to the whole world proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven has come and that God is now reigning over the nations through his Son JesusChrist
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I would vote for the person or party who honestly based their platform on answering these four questions in the affirmative:
1. Is it good for the poor?
2. Is it good for the planet?
3. Does it promote peace?
4. Does it challenge the powerful?
Right?
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Moses confronting Pharaoh
Isaiah decrying Babylon
Daniel in the lion's den
His friends in the fiery furnace
John the Baptist rebuking Herod
JESUS telling Pilate the truth
Paul in chains in Rome
John the Revelator railing against Rome...
Is how the people of God relate to empire.
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If you call yourself a Christian but don’t consider yourself an environmentalist, you have failed to understand some very basic tenets of Christian theology.
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Goddammit.
When will legislators do something about America’s gun violence?
When?!
This doesn’t happen in other countries.
I don’t know what the shooter’s motive was.
I do know an 18-year-old kid killed fourteen elementary schoolchildren with a goddamn gun.
Goddammit.
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Checking in on Twitter I gather John MacArthur said something dumb or unkind (or both) about Beth Moore. I won’t bother to look it up.
Honestly, I’ve never cared what JM says about anything — women, the Holy Spirit, miracles, etc.
He’s stuck in an aging, fading fundamentalism.
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Christians living in the United States of Babylon must learn to live as exiles. Our citizenship is of the heavens and we pledge allegiance to no kingdom but the kingdom of Christ.
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Apparently the Attorney General and the White House Press Secretary have cited the Bible in defense of a "Zero Tolerance" policy that separates immigrant children from their parents. Since teaching the Bible is what I do, I thought I'd weigh in. Here we go... 1/8
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If it needs to be defended with weapons of violence, it’s not the kingdom of Christ.
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The problem with the Christian Right and the Christian Left is that in both ideologies “Christian” gets reduced to adjective duty in service to the all-important political noun. Then Jesus is trotted out as little more than a Republican/Democrat mascot.
No. Jesus is Lord. Period
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This is demonic. I say it with sorrow, but I'm utterly serious, this is demonic. Followers of Jesus would never call for civil war.
Charismatics, do you remember Jesus?
I beg you, read the Sermon on the Mount and compare it to what Rick Joyner is saying.
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If your solution to evil in the world is to “kill the bad guys” you’ve not yet understood Jesus.
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If you think doctrine is more important than love, you already have bad doctrine.
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If you continue to defend Trump after former administration members Gen. Mattis, Gen. Kelly, & Gen. McMaster have warned that Trump is unfit to serve as President, it's not because you're a conservative or a Republican, it's because you're a Trumpist. Just be honest and admit it.
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I've sat in bomb shelters with Israelis in Sderot and I've walked with Palestinians through bombed-out streets in Gaza. What I know is that they are all loved by God. I also know that Jesus calls us to be peacemakers. If all we do is blame "the other side," we're not peacemakers.
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Can I be honest? Sometimes I get tired of regularly being slandered online as a "heretic" because...
1. I don't subscribe to Calvin's 16th c. theory of atonement.
2. I don't subscribe to the modern fundamentalist doctrine of "inerrancy."
OK, I feel better. Time for football.😎
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