Please remember that you bless us with your presence, and may the Holy Spirit bring you His comfort and His peace. Join us!!!
Zoom Link:
For Study, Prayer and Fellowship - 8:00 AM PDT on 06/07/2025:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82968961343?pwd=LzcwVjJKcWVESDRURlhDcXlNV0JUdz09
Meeting ID: 829 6896 1343
Passcode: 77299ere:
In view of our past studies and the external studies we have referenced, we are able to understand the reason America has been so successful. Last week, we saw why Christianity is filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. They are wisdom, understanding, piety, knowledge, counsel, fortitude and fear of the Lord. These play out in the civic square as responsibility, self-condemnation, repentance, diligence, conscientiousness, work, self-restraint, discipline and an element of asceticism. All of these virtues are generated internally. Any presence of the opposing spirit is proof of a culture different from Christianity. The difference is stark. Clearly, the Holy Spirit is bequeathed to humans and is experienced via internalization, love, and prayerful contemplation. These lead to: a spirit of living; a spirit of sincere and profound form; a spirit of perfection and service to God through earthly matter. To believe in Christ means to take from the Son of God this gift of the Holy Spirit as the spirit of creative power and with it create an earthly culture.
To create Christian culture does not mean: legalistic, concerned with abstract dogma, seeking hidden esoteric knowledge, nor to create only by the rules established by the earthly church. We simply must be contemplative, accept God and God’s world. To be contemplative in this manner man is given the power to bring a Christian spirit to everything that he begins to do. Whoever wants to create Christian culture must accept Christianity and in order to do this we must first accept the world, as created by God, and given to us as a gift. However, it is possible to see two incompatible worldviews. They seem to be adjacent to each other and they quietly urge us to choose: reject the world or accept the world. The world and God are opposites. The laws of the world and the laws of the spirit are not compatible. We are not able to serve two masters: the lord of this world is the devil. Thus, this world and the world to come are enemies.
Does this mean we must flee this ‘world’ via separation from earthly human nature? If we as a Christian are unable to separate from the ‘world’ then the ‘world’ will separate us from God. But what can a Christian do in such a ‘world’? Can we believe that Christ came to the ‘world’, taught, and suffered to lead His disciples away from the ‘world’? Can we say Christ taught us to detest all that is earthly? If we answer in the affirmative then Christian culture is false and not possible. If Christianity rejects the ‘world’ in all its elements: private property, economics, gov-ernment, art, science and … all things; then we cannot lead man in the ‘world’. In this scenario the Christian has no creative calling or goal on this earth. However, what are we to think of cultural history over the past 60 years? One characteristic is a mass exodus from the Church and Christianity. Have we been unintentionally given a mixed message? If we search scripture, we must conclude that the term world has different meanings. Sometimes it means all of creation, as created by God. [Rom. 1:20; Eph. 1:4] Or it may mean the unity of all nations to whom Christians are to preach (Great Commission). [Matt. 28] Be assured Christ did not teach us to reject God’s creation or His commission. Thus, what is the world rejected by the NT? It is the ‘world’ that has fallen away from God; stands in opposition to Him; or is independent of Him. This is a ‘world’ that finds confirmation of its values and reality without or against God. This is the ‘world’ that tempts and deludes mankind by awakening man’s fallen nature, [Mark 4:19; 2 Peter 2:20] and leading him to Satan and thus lies under the power of the devil. [John: 12:31; 1 John: 5:19] Any friendship with this ‘world’ is against God, and “… do not you know that friendship with the ‘world’ is hatred toward God. [James 4:4]
A Christian cannot love the ‘world’ that does not love God. [1 John 2: 15,17] But Christ has defeated the ‘world’ [John 16:33] and what is it that overcomes the ‘world’ – our faith. [1 John 5:4] and [1 Cor. 1:27; 2 Cor. 7:10; Luke 12:30; 1 Cor. 11:32] This ‘rejection’ of the ‘world’ cannot be interpreted as hatred of the matter created by God. The universe was created by God and all that is in them. [Matt. 11:25] Because of God’s eternal power this world should not be rejected out of hand. [Rom. 1:20] This refers to mankind as well; God did not reject mankind nor should we! God saves and eternalizes man. [John 3:16] This discussion has the potential to become lengthy; in sum this means the ‘world’ may be rejected only when it is not in God or against God. (Trinity) Rejection of the world is not the essential task of the Christian. Quite the opposite: Christianity took on the world; blessed mankind in the world and began to teach him of the Christian ending to our life, and Christian life itself – including creative work. Where in the world is God not present? We are able to see God in the ‘order’ of things. Christians are given the task of preaching Christ in all the world and inspiring everything earthly with the Holy Spirit.
Christ accepted the world not to reject the world and to show us the true path toward faithful, Christian acceptance of the world. Whoever becomes a creator, taking on this world as part of his life’s journey; assumes the task of perfecting self, neighbor and matter through the Holy Spirit. This is the essence of Christian culture. We must follow in the footsteps of the incarnate Christ and do His work. We do this because of the will of the Father in freedom and the newness of the Holy Spirit. [Rom.7:4-6] “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. …” [1 Peter 2:16-17] The “elites” of all ages and all situations have wanted to modify Christ’s message. The best way out of that misdirection is to accept the world as a consequence of accepting Christ and use that as a foundation for Christian culture. This world exists as a great field for the sowing and the growth of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, “The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. …” [Matt. 13:38-39]
“Science, art, Government, economics – these are, as it were, those spiritual hands by which mankind takes the world. And the task of the Christian is not to brutally chop off those hands, but to imbue their work from within through a living spirit accepted from Christ. Christianity has in this world a great task of the will, which may never be accomplished. This task can be characterized as the creation of a Christian culture.” Ivan Ilyin, Foundations, 1937. AMEN
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