NOTES TO THE CIRCUIT RIDER: THE PLEA, THE REBUKE, THE PROMISE (DEC 24, 2023)

THE SCRIPTURE. “Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain?’ Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]:

‘IF you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you—not you to [the people].

[THEN] I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you,’ says the Lord. ‘And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible and ruthless tyrants.’” – JEREMIAH 15:18-21, AMPC

QUOTATION. “‘In the place of ‘Truth,’ we have discovered facts.’ For Moral Absolutes, we have substituted ‘moral ambiguity.’ We now communicate with everyone and say absolutely nothing. We have reconstructed the Tower of Babel, and it is a television antenna: A thousand voices producing a daily parody of Democracy, in which everyone’s opinion is afforded equal weight, regardless of substance or merit. Indeed, it can even be argued that opinions of real weight tend to sink with barely a trace in television’s ocean of banalities. Our society finds Truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, ‘Truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. [Even whispered] it is a howling reproach!’ What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions. They are commandments. Are, not were!” – TED KOPPEL, “Commencement Address to Duke University,” May 10, 1987; edited

CIRCUIT RIDER. A Minister of the Gospel who rides on horseback from place to place to preach and perform religious ceremonies. Traditionally associated as a Methodist ministerial role that was originated in England by JOHN WESLEY. The first of the American Circuit Riders was ROBERT STRAWBRIDGE, who arrived in the Colonies in 1764. A few years later Wesley sent missionaries to the American Colonies, but most of them departed when Revolution threatened. One who remained was FRANCIS ASBURY, who, as Wesley’s General Assistant, was responsible for organizing the Circuits. – Editors, Britannica, July 20, 1998; edited

FIRST THOUGHTS

This is a very personal Word to me in the midst of my seventh year of crying out for the American Church to Repent of its Historic Harlotry by her blasphemous Alliance with the heretical Maga Christian Nationalism Movement of DONALD J. TRUMP. To virtually no visible avail whatsoever.

None! It has indeed felt very like trying to maneuver the course of the Titanic from her deadly appointment with catastrophe.

Consequently, I have found myself occasionally fighting discouragement surrounded by my own sense of failure, warranted or not. I have complained to the Lord about this numerous times but believe that He has had just about enough of it. He rightly rebukes me here (and all of us who doubt Him, beloved, and ourselves, unfairly).

Yet, somehow, I am greatly relieved at His Corrections, and here’s why.

One, we who labor to remain steadfast in Orthodox Christian Doctrine are in good, even honorable standing with Christ, and that is the most important thing. Two, it has always been the case for the great majority of God’s leaders and people to resist truthful instruction and rebuke. Always. That is precisely why He preserves a Faithful Remnant who persevere. Three, therefore, He has clearly said one more time what may qualify as His Favorite Command:

“¡Sigue adelante!” – “Keep going!”

Thus, I offer this personalized Microcosm of us all who often struggle about being willing to remain fully ‘Out There’ for our King, whether or not we sense or actually see victory. And how we shall ultimately deal with the force of opposition from loved ones, invariably those closest to us, for standing firm.

JESUS SPEAKS PLAIN: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me] is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life [in this world] will [eventually] lose it [through death], and whoever loses his life [in this world] for My sake will find it [that is, life with Me for all eternity].” – MATTHEW 10:37-39, AMP

I dare not breathe even a single word on top of His, beloved. So, let’s move along to our next Big Idea – one that is massive in weight and proportion indeed.

II. THE STATE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH

For those of you who have been following what I teach for a while pretty much know where I am taking this. But for those of you who are relatively new to our gatherings here online, strap down and get ready for a challenging ride as I document what I have discovered in the past seven years of exhaustive study.

Fair Warning: ‘It ain’t pretty.’

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. I turn next to an award-winning journalist, best-selling author, and staff writer for The Atlantic magazine. TIM ALBERTA, who formerly served as chief political correspondent for Politico. In 2019, he published the critically acclaimed book, ‘American Carnage: On the Front Lines of the Republican Civil War and the Rise of President Trump,’ and co-moderated the year’s final Democratic presidential debate aired by PBS Newshour.

I will cull heavily from his recently published piece for The Atlantic titled, “The Only Thing More Dangerous Than Authoritarianism” – ‘Christian Nationalism’ (Dec. 25, 2023). BULLET POINTS will, as usual, tighten our review of his work.

CORRUPTION. “The Corruption of American Christianity is nothing new: Modern-day Pharisees from JERRY FALWELL SR. to PAULA WHITE have spent 50 years weaponizing the Gospel to win elections and dominate the country, exploiting the cultural insecurities of their unwitting brethren for political, professional, and financial gain, all while reducing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a caricature in the eyes of unbelievers. The resulting Collapse of the Church’s reputation in this country—with Sunday attendance, positive perceptions of organized religion, and the number of self-identified Christians all at historic lows—leaves Evangelicals estranged from their secular neighbors like never before. Unbelievers might well prefer it this way. They might be tempted to shrug and move along, assuming that the crack-up of Evangelicalism isn’t their problem. They are mistaken.”

CONSPIRACY. “The Crisis at hand is not simply that Christ’s Message has been corroded, but that His Church has been ‘Radicalized.’ The State-ordered closings of sanctuaries during ‘Covid-19,’ the Conspiracy-fueled objections to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, the Misinformation around vaccines and educational curricula—these and other Culture-War flash points have accelerated notions of imminent Armageddon inside American Christendom. A community that has always felt misunderstood now feels marginalized, ostracized, even persecuted. This feeling is not relegated to the fringes of Evangelicalism. In fact, this fear—that Christianity is in the crosshairs of the Government, that an Evil Plot to topple America’s Judeo-Christian heritage hinges on silencing believers and subjugating the Church—now animates the Religious Right in ways that threaten the very foundations of our Democracy.”

MOBILIZATION. “Mobilizing in response to this perceived threat, the forces of ‘Christian Nationalism’—those who seek to demolish the Wall between Church and State, asserting Far-Right Religious Dominion over the Government as well as the country’s core institutions—are now ascendant both inside the Church and inside the Republican Party. It is no coincidence that, just recently, DONALD TRUMP began suggesting that he would ban any migrant from entering the United States unless they are Christian. Those who don’t share ‘Our Religion,’ the famously impious ex-president pronounced, won’t be welcome here if he’s elected again. Many of the people poised to hold high-ranking posts in a Second Trump Administration don’t view today’s societal disputes through the lens of Republican versus Democrat or of Conservative versus Progressive, but rather of ‘Good versus Evil.’”

WARNING! “Perhaps the only thing more dangerous than Authoritarianism is ‘Authoritarianism infused with Religious Justification.’ It hardly matters whether the would-be tyrant is personally devout; Vladimir Putin’s lack of theology didn’t stop him from partnering with the Russian Orthodox Church to frame the bloody invasion of Ukraine as God’s ordained conquest of a Satanic stronghold. To believe that it couldn’t happen here—mass conflict rooted in Identitarian conviction and driven by religious zeal—is to ignore both 20th-century precedent and the escalating Holy-War rhetoric inside the Evangelical Church.”

DK. Mr. Alberta’s assemblage of the facts of this terrible circumstance is as tight and accurate an analysis as you will ever read. I lament that my last seven years of non-stop lobbying against the monstrosity that the Religious Right has constructed has had virtually no effect whatsoever. But, again I say, each time I think out loud, “Oh Lord, what’s the use!” I hear that still, small yet Resolute Voice tinged with Divine Rage:

“¡Sigue adelante!” – “Keep going!”

III: THE TEACHING

[THEN] I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord. And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible and ruthless tyrants.’” – JEREMIAH 15:18-21, AMPC

KEY TERMS

PAIN. ‘Keeb’ [כְּאֵב]: From a root word, “‘To feel pain or to grieve;’ to spoil or mar; make sad (sore); be sorrowful; suffering (physical or mental); adversity [or affliction, persecution].”

RETURN. ‘Shub’ [שׁוּב]: From a primitive root, “‘To turn back [to God];’ to return to the starting point; to bring back home again; recompense or recover; to rescue, restore, retrieve; fig. of revival from death.”

WALL. ‘Chomah’ [חוֹמָה]: “From an unused root meaning, “‘To join [with God];’ a wall of protection; walled in; fig. the wall of a city; by means of a plumbline [of truth]; to kindle a fire; a citadel or fortress; compares to David’s (mighty men) as protectors of Nabal’s shepherds; imp. a prophet as object of assault.”

COMMENTARY. “It is a matter of comfort that we have a God, to whose knowledge of all things we may appeal. Jeremiah pleads with God for mercy and relief against his enemies, persecutors, and slanderers. It will be a comfort to God’s ministers, when men despise them, if they have the testimony of their own consciences. But he complains that he found little pleasure in his work. Some good people lose much of the pleasantness of Religion by the fretfulness and uneasiness of their natural temper, which they indulge. ‘The Lord called the Prophet to cease from his distrust, and to return to his work.’

‘IF he attended thereto, [Then]’ he is assured the Lord would deliver him from his enemies. Those who are ‘with God,’ and ‘faithful to Him,’ He will deliver from trouble or carry through it. Many things appear frightful, which do not at all hurt a real believer in Christ.” – MATTHEW HENRY, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

DK’S TAKE. I have said it before, that when I lapse into these sorts of ‘Woe is me’ moments, I have invariably been corrected by our True Father who never bends to obsequious mollycoddle nor soft indulgences toward me. As with the False Christ ladled out Sunday after Sunday in our disingenuously timid American assemblies these days. Rather it sounds and feels something like this:

‘Now that you have had your say and I have heard you (again), let’s get back to work. There is yet much to do!’

Thus, as I work out my own complex reaction to so much rejection by my peers, I am reminded by the Messiah Himself, and indeed by all of History, of the following Promised Reality.

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.” – JOHN 15:18-21, NKJV

I take it from these powerful Words that there can be no higher honor appointed to us than to be willing to suffer for the One who was literally slaughtered for us. It was POLYCARP, Bishop of Smyrna and the great Christian Martyr to the Faith who perhaps said it best at his own Fiery End:

“But the Proconsul urged him and said, ‘Swear, and I will release thee; curse the Christ.’ And Polycarp said, ‘Eighty and six years have I served him, and He hath done me no wrong; how then can I blaspheme my King who saved me?'” — THE CHURCH FATHERS, The Martyrdom of Polycarp, c. 200 AD; edited

How indeed, American Church? How indeed. You blaspheme Him every day you cower in thunderous Silence or Accommodate the World Spirit.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

I am taken now to the words of an old Hymn my Mom used to sing to me now and then, the meanings of which were lost on my youthful ignorance. And vastly more terribly, to the staggering blindness of the American Church today.

It was written by an Anglican priest in 1865 named SABINE BARING-GOULD. As the backstory is told: “When Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt met in August 1941 on the Battleship HMS Prince of Wales to agree on the Atlantic Charter, a Church service was held for which Prime Minister Churchill chose the hymns.

He chose ‘ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS,’ and afterwards made a radio broadcast explaining this choice:

We sang ‘Onward, Christian Soldiers’ indeed, and I felt that this was no vain presumption, but that we had the right to feel that we were serving a Cause for the sake of which a Trumpet has sounded from On High. When I looked upon that densely packed congregation of fighting men of the same language, of the same faith, of the same fundamental laws, of the same ideals … it swept across me that here was the only hope, but also the Sure Hope, of saving the world from measureless degradation.” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, Oct. 21, 2023; edited

As I close, I quote the original lyrics to the song in their entirety as arranged by Mr. Baring-Gould and his hymnist colleague, ARTHUR SEYMOUR SULLIVAN, as fitting tribute and more, as our unmistakable Last Days Command to the True Church (edited).

THE LYRICS. “(1) Onward Christian Soldiers marching as to War, with the Cross of Jesus going on before. Christ the Royal Master leads against the Foe, forward into Battle see His Banner go. (2) At the sign of triumph Satan’s host doth flee, on then Christian Soldiers on to victory! Hell’s foundations quiver at the shout of praise. Brothers lift your voices loud your anthems raise! (3) Like a mighty Army moves the Church of God. Brothers we are treading where the Saints have trod. ‘We are not divided, all One Body, we one in Hope and Doctrine; one in Charity.’

(4) Onward then ye people, join our happy throng. Blend with ours your voices in the Triumph Song! Glory laud and honor unto Christ the King! This thru countless ages men and angels sing. (5) Crowns and thrones may perish, kingdoms rise and wane. But the Church of Jesus constant will remain! Gates of Hell can never ‘gainst the Church prevail. We have Christ’s own Promise and that cannot fail. (6) What the Saints established that I hold for true, what the Saints believed that I believe too, long as earth endureth. Men the Faith will hold; kingdoms, nations, empires in destruction rolled!”

DK. Beloved Last Days followers of The Christ who have rejected the Antichrist by your confession, by your conduct, and by your very lives in His Trust, do hear today our King’s Battle Cry for Warriors of the Cross. No sunshine patriots for Him, no slacked and watered-down quasi-Canon for Him, neither cowards nor proselytes for earthy gain. No!

‘Only Soldiers, beloved. Only Soldiers!’

THE CHRISTIAN WARRIOR. To further address this vital matter, I quite appropriately turn to an archived essay by an editor of Ministry Magazine identified only as I.H.E. dated August 1934. I absolutely loved what he wrote some 90 years ago.

“The Apostle to the Gentiles [PAUL] often referred to himself and his fellow workers as ‘Soldiers.’ The Christian life he called a ‘Warfare.’ Somehow this great Evangelist, this mighty soul winner, took his work so seriously that he compared himself to a Soldier-and the Church to an ‘Army of Men,’ traveling, fighting, suffering, enduring, and conquering. To this noble Preacher his ministry was not simply maneuvering and drawing of rations, but it was a Warfare that called upon him to give all to win the victory. To young Timothy, whom Paul called ‘my son’ and whom he greatly loved, he wrote: ‘Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ’” [2 Timothy 2:3].

The Greek term for “ENDURE HARDNESS” is, ‘Kakopatheó’ [κακοπαθέω]: “To suffer affliction or persecution; undergo [severe] hardship; from a root word meaning ‘a passion’ [as with The Passion of the Christ at Golgotha]; to endure evil or torment [even great loss or death]; great pain or trouble.”

Yes, that sort of thing, beloved. Requirements you rarely if ever hear about in Church today. Ever!

CODA. To this final, monumental point, beloved. ‘We are all Circuit Riders now,’ every one of us who would dare to follow the True Risen Christ in these Last Times. Unto life, or unto death. Yet THE QUESTION hangs in the storm-driven air all around us:

“Are you willing?”

Permit me to encourage you with a favorite passage that nearly always brings a tear when I read it closely. “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I, Lord. Send me!” – ISAIAH 6:8, AMP

I fervently pray that your Final Answer would be so resounding a, “Lord, here am I. Please send me!” that it would shake the foundations of both Heaven and Hell. That He would firebrand you with His Mighty Name, and Hell’s hordes would cower at your very presence! Tremble at your presence!

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/Yn22B3JNr-M