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Tag: COVID

Is the Evangelical Christian?
What’s YOUR image of the evangelical christian?

What is it that they do? Where do YOU hear about them?

How do YOU become one? (Would you even want to add YOUR name to a list of evangelical Christians?)

This all-American anomaly does seem more prevalent in certain months of certain years. It’s practically an insult, isn’t it?

Who is calling out these evangelical christians so visible in the media?

Good News – Bad News

First, the Good News.

εὐαγγελιστής – Evangelist (noun) – The Evangelist brings good news! It’s the name given to the NT heralds of salvation through Christ who are not apostles.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” And Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said,

“Do you understand what you are reading?”

And he said, “Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.

Acts of the Apostles 8:26-40 Legacy Standard Bible

GOOD NEWS: Philip is a Biblical example of an Evangelical Christian.

Evangelicals are preachers – those who have received their Gospel from the angels of God!

Christians are called to proclaim Jesus Christ, preaching His Gospel Good News to those drawn by God to eternal life.

For indeed we have had good news preached to us, even as they also did, but the word they heard didn’t profit them, because it wasn’t mixed with faith by those who heard.
Hebrews 4:2 – HNV

Now the Bad News (and it is two-fold).

Many evangelical christians do NOT follow Jesus Christ
1. Many who hear the Good News proclaimed will not benefit.
2. Some who claim to bring their good news to all do not preach Christ. (Listen with caution to where these so-called evangelicals would lead you and their loyal herds into the turmoil of this world.)
Listen to the sound reasoning of the Apostle Paul as he encourages believers of the Church at Corinth:

But if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
For we are not proclaiming ourselves but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’s sake. – 2 Corinthians 4:3-5 CSB

A Christian Evangelical

The authentic evangelical Christian claims no Lord other than Jesus Christ or agenda before the Gospel of Scripture.
Roger@talkofJESUS.com

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is foremost in the proclamation of the evangelical.
- Political and cultural cause do not become a gospel for an authentic evangelical Christian.
It is both true and troublesome that the label ‘Christians‘ was first used in Antioch (Acts 11:26) to malign followers of Jesus Christ compared to other religions and contemporarily used to claim or malign Jesus as a cause for or against culture unrelated to Christ.

Not every evangelical is so, just because someone called them an ‘evangelical christian’ away from the context of worship.
- The authentic evangelical worshiper will not ride every wave of contemporary culture or cling to cultural traditions of their past.
- An authentic evangelical church does not blindly follow the vision of a pastor ahead of the Gospel which God has revealed in the Bible.
- The authentic evangelical preacher does not substitute his own words for the true Gospel written in Scripture.
What is it that authentic Evangelical Christians do?

They evangelize good news of Christ.

The Gospel is Good News for sinners saved from death and the judgement of God. But the NEWS of Jesus Christ is NOT a topic shared by the world set against God.

Is the Lord Jesus Christ the HEADLINE of media?

Hardly.

What is it that Republicans do? They evangelize the good news of the republic (regardless of who they claim as their god).

And what is it that Democrats do? They evangelize the good news of democracy (regardless of what universal religion of the masses they claim).

Who is calling out these evangelical christians so visible in the media?

The opposition – opponents both of each other and against Jesus Christ.

So what is the business of media (including, of course, SOCIAL MEDIA)?

NEWS that sells.

Viral News that spreads through the unconsciousness of addicted consumers of culture.

NEWS creates COVID

– a Culture Of Viral Influential Destruction

of its consumed viewers, readers, listeners and virtual audience.

Whenever the world believes they can once again crucify the Lord God on their cross,

the NEWS maligns evangelical christians as human examples

demonstrating how God cannot save their world or their souls.

From Tents to Stadiums & Community to MEGA-Church

The Apostles of the first century Church appointed other men like Philip to serve their growing church and preach the Gospel. These men and women were evangelical Christians in the fullest sense, proclaiming Gospel Good News of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord to all the world — men, women and children of every culture and nation.

Their churches (some to which we have letters from the Apostles) were mostly house churches or gatherings of the saints in certain public places.

Evangelism was by word of mouth and by their own example of Christ-like uniqueness from the cultures in which they lived.

Peter, John, Paul, Philip, Barnabas, Luke and many others represent Christ as evangels of their first century lives. They traveled between communities, wrote letters, sent money and pastoral advice and stayed with these believers for a time when the Spirit led them to build up the Church.

The Tabernacle was central to the Hebrew community as they traveled to the Promised Land

Paul made tents for travelers, but by the days of the explorers of later centuries, larger tents became meeting places – a public square in the middle of nowhere as in the days of the Tabernacle of Moses.

Evangelical Christians have gone into all the world in every century between the first and twenty-first an proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

a Glance at Evangelicalism Divided

The impression of Christ by the evangelical of the twentieth century became tainted by evangelicals themselves, a trend which has multiplied into further contention in our cultural churches of the twenty-first century.

We will continue our look at Evangelical Christian Churches NEXT TIME in a brief overview of 1950-2000 by Iain Murray.

Stay tuned…
July 30, 2022
Persevering the Social Distancing of Virtual Relationship
Letters to a Distanced Church

A quick glance at the map reveals many first century churches near the Aegean Sea, a long voyage from Jerusalem.

Believers of The Way had to depend on distant leaders to sow and nurture virtual relationships:
- to each other,
- to other churches (many in local or nearby homes)
- and to distant Shepherds of Christ like Peter and Paul.
The Apostles embraced these saints of so many distant churches with Christ’s love. They loved their flocks through letters and by occasional visits of their founding fathers (Apostles and other disciples of Jesus). Each of these mission churches had its own shepherd, sometimes a father of the household where they met.

Like the Gospels, Church Letters (Epistles) arrived by messenger or with its own pastor (Shepherd or father) returning from Jerusalem, Rome or other place where the Apostles could encourage them in Christ.

A voyage to Thessalonica from Rome or Jerusalem is about the same distance.

Pastoral letters (from the Shepherds or Church Fathers) would be read in as many of the churches along its route as practically possible.

Do you suppose that the saints of the Church in Thessaloniki suffered social distancing from their local friends, neighbors and businesses?

YES. In fact many early Christians were socially distanced from their own communities and neighbors due to threat of persecution or even death.

2 Thessalonians

from the Church Fathers of the First Century

Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers and sisters, as is only fitting, because your faith is increasing abundantly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another grows ever greater…

Hear Paul’s heart for them and note how these socially distanced Christians coped with a new reality much different than before.

4 As a result, we ourselves speak proudly of you among the churches of God:
- for your perseverance and faith
- in the midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.
This is a plain indication of God’s righteous judgment so that you will be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you indeed are suffering.

Commentary on a too-familiar setting
- Does this also encourage you in your social isolation from the brothers and sisters of Christ’s Church?
Picture this background from commentary of John MacArthur:

..pressure and persecution had also increased. The seeds of false doctrine concerning the Lord had been sown, and the people were behaving disorderly.

So Paul wrote to his beloved flock who were: 1) discouraged by persecution and needed incentive to persevere; 2) deceived by false teachers who confused them about the Lord’s return; and 3) disobedient to divine commands, particularly by refusing to work.

Who witnesses Christ’s love in you?

Our own 21st century community also watches us, even as the Lord Jesus assures His distant lambs held near in every era,

“In the world you have tribulation, G2347 but take courage; I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33 NASB

There’s that PRESSURE AGAIN.

COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 2

Pressure from Affliction – ours and our loved ones.

Paul assures the Church of Relief & Retribution

For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict G2346 you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted G2346 and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 NASB

Sinners AFFLICTED — Sinners without hope as once we were.

SEPARATED by our sin, DISTANCED from the Lord God never seeking Christ Jesus, the Savior who cleanses our soul.

Afflicted by others, but also sinners spared from Judgment by the mercy of the Lord Jesus.
- COVID – Social Distancing for a time known to the Lord.
- Judgment – Just punishment separating sinners from God forever.
- COVID will end, replaced by other pandemics of the world’s sin.
- Judgment will come to the unrepentant after our mortal time expires.
These people will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power..
2 Thessalonians 1:9 NASB

Yet in Christ, our Lord and Savior, with the Presence of the Holy Spirit; even now — in these days of affliction — we draw near to the love and light which shines through the darkness of this world.

Amen.
January 8, 2021
COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 2
Affliction

Our hearts in this year of our Lord 2021 still struggle with the affliction of COVID and restless crowds of displaced people displaced from work. All the world suffers a great loss of normalcy as we cry out, “HOW?”
COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing – 1 + talk of Jesus .com

We will return to our 21st century lamentations of COVID, but now return to the 6th century B.C. question of the people of Judah:

“How?”

Previously, in case you missed part 1:

COVID – the Affliction of Social Distancing

Even though the Lord warned those with ears to hear in advance, their unexpected suffering is real.

Eicha – Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah
- 1:3 Judah has gone into exile under affliction H6040 And under harsh servitude..
- 1:7 In the days of her affliction H6040 and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious things That were from the days of old..
- 1:9 She did not consider her future. Therefore she has fallen astonishingly; She has no comforter. “See, O LORD, my affliction, H6040..
Strong’s H6040 עֳנִי
- affliction, poverty, misery;
  - from H6031; depression, i.e. misery:—afflicted(-ion), trouble.
That’s it! .. with this COVID affliction of A.D. 2020, 2021 and perhaps years of a generation to come, isn’t it?

Jeremiah tells us [in Lamentations 3]:

I am the man who has seen affliction H6040
Because of the rod of His wrath..

Remember my affliction H6040 and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

Like Jeremiah, we ask: Does the Lord our God not hear our laments of this present affliction?

Lamentations 4 & 5

Hear this 6th c. B.C. prayer with contrition of crushed spirit and acceptance of just punishment for guilt.

Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach..
The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
Lamentations 5:1,16 KJV

Where is our A.D. 2021 confession of sin against the Lord?

Indeed, the nations are unclean before the Lord our God.

θλῖψις – Strong’s G2347

Not that we require more synonyms for our sufferings, but the NT Greek brings with it hope of the Good News of Jesus Christ our Savior.

TRIBULATION or affliction
- a pressing, pressing together, pressure
- metaph. oppression, affliction, tribulation, distress, straits
  - From θλίβω (G2346); to press (as grapes), press hard upon
  - a compressed way; narrow straitened, contracted
  - metaph. to trouble, afflict, distress
  - Four years ago I addressed this root & persecution in Tribulation? Cheer up.
Tribulation? Cheer up.

Behold the hour is coming

This prophesy of Jesus Christ may not sound any more encouraging than the affliction of COVID or our isolation in social distancing; but you with ears to hear, listen to this metaphor of the Lord Jesus for the time ahead.

The Gospel of John

“Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish G2347 because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. – John 16:21 NASB

Does the Lord’s metaphor not apply to these early pangs of pain in these last days?

Jesus continues in His metaphor of labor pain applying it personally to His own approaching Crucifixion for our sins in Jerusalem, which of course is followed by the Lord’s triumphal resurrection!

The Disciples would once again know their Lord in His risen flesh!

COVID may be one cause of our present affliction, but social distancing will not cure the condition of our dejected demeanors of heart and soul.

“Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. – John 16:22 NASB

The Lord assures the Apostles that they will be ALONE.

While Jesus is isolated in death they will think that HE is ALONE. But HE is not.

Jesus will be with the Father.

“Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
John 16:32 NASB

SCATTERED.. AND ALONE! Sure sounds like our contemporary SOCIAL DISTANCING.

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, G2347 but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 NASB – Strong’s G2347 – thlipsis: tribulation, affliction, trouble

COVID – an affliction of God’s Judgment?

Jesus and the Apostles guide the Church to the narrow path along the valley of the shadow of death.

Perhaps the time has come and is now here for Christians to witness Light into the darkness of these foreboding days of COVID’s crumbling impact on the unclean social environment of the world.
Roger Harned – talk of Jesus .com challenge to the socially distanced church of A.D. 2021

Social Media is not the world
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to be continued...
NEXT: letter to a church persevering through suffering
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January 6, 2021