NOTES ON THE SCENT OF TRIUMPH UPON GOD’S OBEDIENT REMNANT

SCRIPTURE. “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” ― 2 CORINTHIANS 2:14, AMP

QUOTATION. “The harder the Conflict, the more glorious the Triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow.” ― THOMAS PAINE, The Crisis, Dec. 23, 1776; edited

FIRST THOUGHTS

I have said it several times before and I must say it again here in what promises to be in excruciating detail: The Nation’s Evangelical Church might better be named: ‘First Church of American Cowardice.

In light of that severe charge, I am constructing the foundation for this piece based upon JOHN O. GOOCH’S superb historical analysis published recently in Christianity Today entitled: “Cowardice Among the Christians” (October 2023). Once again, this essay is not for the faint of heart, but only for those more interested in truth rather than the much safer ground of conventional propriety.

THESIS. As a staggering and shameless tragedy, the American Church has chosen not to stand, chosen not to speak, and chosen therefore not to obey her King on the most critical and pressing issues of the day. She has left her Watchman’s Post on the Wall, to be overrun by Barbarians both wearing the name of Christ and those wearing the name, Antichrist.

Again, more happily, the ones who remain loyal to Jesus Christ, those few valorous ones fully engaged in the unending Struggle for Truth and Honor in these Last Days and Hours, constitute ‘God’s Holy Remnant.’ These are, in any generation, the True Confessing Church peopled by genuine followers of God who are willing to lay down their very lives for Him, should he require it of them.

These same one day shall throw their hard-earned Victor Crowns at His feet to declare once and for all: “You [alone] are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created!” (REVELATION 4:11, AMP).

But first we must look at their polar opposites that make up what both research and experience constitute the great majority of American Christians in 2023.

II. COWARDS OF THE EVANGELICAL MAGISTERIUM

COWARD. “A person who wants for courage to meet danger; a poltroon [arrant milksop; a dastard; a wretch without spirit or courage]; a timid or pusillanimous man. In heraldry, a term given to a lion borne in the escutcheon with his tail doubled between his legs.” – NOAH WEBSTER, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828; edited

Beloved, speaking as a man of 79 years, son of a biological father who served as a Marine Flying Leather Neck as tail gunner in a B-17 bomber, and a stepfather who served as a Navy submariner in the South Pacific in the Second World War, I hate cowardice. I submit to you, God hates cowardice, especially when it is found in His Pulpits!

That said, I confess to being a coward in the Vietnam War Era. Dodged the draft in a number of ways, every one shameless, filled with timorous self-interest. In some small defense after visiting the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington DC three times awash with tears shed for those who died in my place, I tried to join the Army National Guard at the age of 40.

I recall asking two Master Sergeants sitting as recruiters that day, asking them if the Army could use me. They grinned at one another, then one said this: “Sir, only if it gets really, really bad.”

THE REALLY BAD. Serving in the military is certainly not the only place where we find courage, for there are many other varieties of this indispensable character trait that the valiant among us can display. But it is the one theater where one’s life is always on the line, as with our police officers and other categories of first responders such as firefighters. They are tested every time the alarms go off or the sirens scream.

As in Israel as I write these sobering lines, appropriately, on a cold Colorado afternoon on October 31, 2023.

Today’s American Evangelical Church is filled right up to the gunnels, as my Navy Dad would have said it, with men animated by self-preservation and self-gain. In the infamous study by DR. BARNA published in August of 2014, the vast majority (over 93%), admitted that they would not speak on controversial issues in order to ensure their financial security linked to the tithe.

One Church authority has seen this Vein of Cowardice grow in recent years. JIM ELLIFF is author, pastor, founder and president of Christian Communicators Worldwide (CCW). He wrote this in his self-autobiographical Blog last year.

“I have been involved in leading churches for four decades, with an emphasis on church planting in the last few years. I’ve also visited and addressed hundreds of churches around the world and have had the privilege of meeting thousands of Christian leaders. Through this time, I’ve watched an unintentional doctrinal imprecision on the part of many pastors become intentional. In other words, I have witnessed a new ‘Conventional Wisdom’ emerge.

Simply stated it is the ‘wisdom’ of attempting to circle in more people for our churches by unashamedly minimizing, or perhaps nearly eradicating, the restricting influences of Doctrine. What Pastors used to do (because of being poorly taught perhaps), they now do by intent, ‘all for church growth.’ The problem is, it works.” – “Why Do Pastors Deliberately Avoid Teaching Doctrine?” CCW Today, Dec. 30, 2022; edited

We may therefore conclude that ‘Mammon’ has become the Primal Sacred Cow of American Christianity today in the great majority of our larger churches especially. This deep structure Fracture in the very Soul of the Church has left her completely vulnerable to the siren song of Donald Trump’s Christian Nationalism that promises power and prosperity to all those who would join with him to “Make America Great Again.”

A phrase, by the way, virtually dripping with worldly avarice, requiring our Church Leaders, most of whom are quite wealthy, to eviscerate Truth and Sound Doctrine for monetary and political advance. Which bring us to the following incendiary analysis.

THE GOOCH REFERENDUM

As long as I continue to advance the admittedly severe charge of Cowardice in most of the American Church these days, it is incumbent upon me to properly argue and document my case. I begin that important task by taking a brief look at the History of Cowardice in the Christian Church.

I came across a superb short history of this odious element in Christianity Today’s October 2023 issue by DR. JOHN O. GOOCH, a freelance writer and editor, retired pastor with a doctoral degree in Historical Theology from St. Louis University. He gives us deep appreciation for today’s collapse of pastoral character under duress as something not new in the Christian experience.

“Decius became emperor in 249, at a time of crisis. Externally, the Empire was threatened by invasions on the northern frontiers. Internally, the citizens lacked cohesion and moral fiber.

Decius decided to strengthen and unite the Empire on the basis of Religion. He ordered that all citizens take part in a general sacrifice, pouring out a libation to the Roman gods and eating part of the sacrificial meat. This order was aimed particularly at prominent Christian leaders. Decius operated on the theory that if you cut off the head, the body will die of itself.

‘Citizens who refused to sacrifice were imprisoned, tortured, and killed.’ Great bishops such as Fabian of Rome, Babylas of Antioch, and Alexander of Jerusalem were killed or died in prison. Others, like Cyprian of Carthage, Dionysius of Alexandria, and Gregory the Wonderworker, were banished or went into hiding … The Church practically collapsed. Thousands of Christians either offered sacrifices or obtained a certificate (libellus) saying that they had sacrificed.”

THE LESSON. The exquisitely painful point here is that ‘only a few refused’ to follow the Emperor’s demand that they worship the Roman gods. The great majority bowed. Let me say that again: ‘The great majority bowed!’ When the Persecution ended, the Church was left to the crucial Doctrinal Question as to what to do with these Apostates – grant them Absolution and readmission to the body of Christ upon their repentance, or consign them to Outer Darkness as eternal penalty for their serious transgression of Denying the Messiah.

The various High Church Counsels did not resolve the issue, except to render TWO OPINIONS that each church had as guides – One severe, the other more lenient.

CHURCH AS PURE BRIDE. “Behind the struggle lies the question of ‘Post-Baptismal Sin.’ In Against Marcion (c. 208), Tertullian listed what seems to have been a common understanding of the benefits of Baptism: Remission of sins, deliverance from death, rebirth to new life, and endowment with the Holy Spirit. In his work On Pennance (c. 197), Tertullian said that because Baptism is so important, there can be no second repentance after Baptism. Particularly could there be no forgiveness of what would later be called ‘mortal sins’—adultery, murder, apostasy. Since the lapsed had Apostatized, the answer was clear: They could not be received back. Tertullian’s strict position was based on an understanding of the Church as the pure body and bride of Christ. The Church stood separate, against the Empire.”

CHURCH OF WHEAT AND TARES. “Another view of the Church led to a different understanding of penance and of how to treat the lapsed. Hermas, in The Shepherd (c. 150), had said there could be One Repentance after Baptism. Hermas even suggested that Apostasy might be forgiven once. Callistus, the Bishop of Rome from 217 to 222, apparently was willing to offer penance and forgiveness for adultery and murder (at least Hippolytus and Tertullian accused him of that). But forgiveness was not easy. Penance was public and lasted a long time. No clergy who sinned were admitted again to their office [including the views put forth by Origen in Against Celsus (c. 248)] … But forgiveness was not easy. Penance was public and lasted a long time. No clergy who sinned [in this manner] were admitted again to their office.”

DK ON APOSTASY. Questionable Church doctrines and practices notwithstanding, what follows should come as no surprise to those of you who have read my work. I take the First View without hesitation since that, in my well-studied understanding, is precisely what the Scriptures demand. Jesus is not coming back for a Church despoiled by an admixture of wheat and tares by any stretch of the Canon! He is coming back for a Church without Compromise.

“Husbands, love your wives [seek the highest good for her and surround her with a caring, unselfish love], just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word [of God], so that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; ‘but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless.’” – EPHESIANS 5:25-27, AMP

The Commentaries. The Classic Theologians appear to be of a single mind on the matter: “‘Not having spot’ – Not having a stain, a defect, or any impurity – still retaining the allusion to a bride, and to the care taken to remove every blemish. ‘Or wrinkle’ – In the vigor and beauty of youth like a bride in whom there is no wrinkle of age. ‘Or any such thing’ – Nothing to deform, disfigure, or offend. To this beautiful illustration of the Final Glory of the Church, the Apostle was led by the mention of the relation of the husband and the wife.” – ALBERT BARNES, Notes on the Old and New Testament, 1884; edited

FINAL VERDICT. “For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward ‘destroyed those who did not believe.’ And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them in a similar manner to these, having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, ‘suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.’” – JUDE 1:4-7, NKJV

Jude ends his unmistakably Sober Warning with our call to, if at all possible, “make a distinction [between the repentant and unrepentant], ‘with fear, pull them out of the fire’” (V. 22). For me at least and apparently for the Apostle, the command is clear: Apostates, without full repentance, shall burn in the Flame that never dies.

Selah.

IV. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.” ― 2 CORINTHIANS 2:14, AMP

KEY TERMS

“TRIUMPH.” ‘Thriambeuó’ [θριαμβεύω]: “A noisy, acclamatory procession in honor of conquest of or victory [over one’s foes]; from a root word meaning ‘to clamor, frighten or trouble [the adversary];’ to lead one as prisoner in a triumphal procession; among the ancient Romans, a pompous ceremony performed in honor of a victorious general; the state of being victorious.”

“FRAGRANCE.” ‘Osmé’ [ὀσμή]: “A smell, odor, savor; fragrance; in the present context, ‘such as is diffused (or emitted) by life, and itself imparts life;’ perceived by an agreeable smell (or a warm spicy taste); a sweet smell as with a perfume; a pleasing scent, bouquet, redolence or balm.”

COMMENTARY. “‘Now thanks be to God, who’ — In Macedonia, as elsewhere; ‘causeth us to triumph’ — Makes our ministry successful against all opposition; ‘in Christ’ — Namely, by the influence of His truth and grace. To triumph implies not only victory, but an open manifestation of it. ‘And maketh manifest the savour’ — Rather ‘odour; of His knowledge’ — Namely, the knowledge of God and Christ, and His Gospel; ‘in every place’ — Where He calls us to labour, or in the course of His Providence casts our lot.

‘As in triumphal processions’ — Especially in the East, fragrant odours and incense were burned near the conquerors, so he seems beautifully to allude to that circumstance in what he says of οσμη, the ‘Odour of the Gospel,’ in the following verses. And [it] seems further to allude to the different effects of strong perfumes to cheer some, and to throw others into violent disorders, according to the different dispositions they are in to receive them.’” ― JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

THE REMNANT’S FRAGRANCE. As I was commenting on another post with one of our Fellowship members, I was reminded (providentially I think) of the end of the passage.

“For we are the sweet fragrance of Christ [which ascends] to God, [discernible both] among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the latter one an aroma from death to death [a fatal, offensive odor], but to the other an aroma from life to life [a vital fragrance, living and fresh]. And who is adequate and sufficiently qualified for these things?” – 2 CORINTHIANS 2:15-16, AMPC

This idea of a Sweet Fragrance to the Lord is as old as antiquity, beloved, when God literally smells and tastes of our obedience to Him. As with Noah’s soothing offering which the Lord savored after The Deluge (Gen. 8:21). Or where Paul received the lovely gifts from Ephaphroditus as “a fragrant offering” (Phil. 4:8). Or finally, when the prayers of the saints are described by the Apostle “as incense,” well pleasing to the Lord (Rev. 5:8).

In Sum: The entire Theology of Christ’s Last Days Winnowing of the obedient Wheat from their oppositely rebellious Chaff is at the center of all this, described by the Scriptures as the ‘Sanctification of the Church.’ It is most often achieved by ‘Sacred Fire’ in the form of God-ordained trials and tests to refine us, as He indeed prepares for Himself a proper Bride, without stain or blemish or any like thing.

Beloved, the Church is in a grinding, historic yet magnificent ‘Test of Faith,’ revolving overwhelmingly around the Usurpation of the Church for raw political power and/or material gain. Most of the Church are failing The Test, be we cannot. I say again: We must not! I shall spell out some practical steps we can take in the final section to encourage us toward Divine Triumph.

V. LAST THOUGHTS: HEROES OF THE FAITH

Without apology, I view The Remnant Church as synonymous with Heroes of the Faith. Whether we are talking of the Early Church Martyrs, or the valorous Reformers and Non-Conformists of the late Medieval Era, or the German Confessors of the World War II Period – these to me are the Biblical Essence of Heroism.

“HERO.” A man [or woman] of distinguished valor, intrepidity or enterprise in danger; as a hero in arms. A great, illustrious or extraordinary person. In Pagan mythology, a hero was an illustrious person, mortal indeed, but supposed by the populace to partake of immortality.” – NOAH WEBSTER, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828; edited

Indeed, the Scriptures literally define, by both name and conduct, the “Heroes of the Faith” in Paul’s Letter to the Hebrews. In that context then, refresh yourselves in the following Words.

“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a City for them.” – HEBREWS 11:13-16, NKJV

FOUR FRAGRANCES. This brings me to a wonderful summary of what God considers a “sweet smelling incense” to His royal nostrils. Former newspaper journalist and now freelance writer DENISE KOHLMEYER describes just that in her piece for Desiring God titled, “Four Aromas God Loves Most” (Jan. 24, 2017; edited).

I close with her richly instructive insights.

AROMA OF OUR PRAYERS. These include ‘fervent prayers’ of thanksgiving and gratitude, intercession, forgiveness, adoration and praise, desperation and utter dependence, seeking wisdom, petitions and supplications, seeking peace, and salvation. To which I carefully add, prayers of imprecation, as we wield the Word of God to take down false doctrines and the philosophies of men that oppose God’s Truth.

AROMA OF OUR REPENTANCE. The author goes to the heart of the matter by quoting Martin Luther: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ He intended that ‘the entire life of believers’ should be repentance.” That is to say, the truly humble and contrite disciple is in a constant state of contrition, realizing that God is the One who makes possible the wonders, abilities and opportunities we experience in this life, not us. Humility is the opposite of Pride, which God detests (cf. Isaiah 2:12; James 4:6).

AROMA OF OUR WITNESS. Kohlmeyer again strikes a resounding chord here, so I quote her again since I could not say it better: “Regardless of recipients’ reactions, however, ‘our testimonies’ produce a powerful fragrance which God delights in, for truth always smells good to God. Nothing pleases Him more than to see His Son glorified in the courageous testimonies of those He came to save. And if the Lord is pleased with us, ‘What can man do?’ (HEBREWS 13:6).” Courage, beloved, greatly delights our King, but Cowardice He loathes.

AROMA OF OUR LOVE. Now right about here I revel in the wisdom of the author’s clear distinction between the romanticized, touchy-feely nonsense that the Church so frequently and offensively offers, and the deeply Sacrificial Love that Christ Himself defines: “If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments … No one has greater love [nor stronger commitment] than to lay down his own life for his friends” (JOHN 14:15, 15:13, AMP).

CODA. Fervent Prayer, Personal Humility, Courageous Witnessing, and Self-Sacrificial Love – these are the Hallmarks of ‘True Spirituality,’ as Francis Schaeffer wrote of it in 1971. Beloved, if only we could hear such things preached with fire from today’s American Pulpit, I tell you true, we could shake this Nation from her current destructive course to a Return to true greatness, as God defines it.

But I see no interest in such a Church-wide Revolution, for that is what it would be: ‘A Firestorm of Truth’ ramifying across and powerfully impacting the entire country and Family of Nations. Can you imagine it my friends? If not, then we latch ourselves tight to the Captain’s Helm with an eye to the Heavenly City, pledging our very lives to Him – till He Comes! SELAH.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/2KjsMEMR9S8