It's Time To Set Jesus Free
In the 3 months leading up to this last election, 4 out of the 5 most circulated news stories on Facebook were hoax stories.
Think about that for a second.
These stories weren’t simply biased, twisted, or distorted. They were completely made up. They were 100% fake.
And they were passed around as actual news by hundreds of thousands of people.
Modern “prophecy” can be scary.
On the one hand, it can be a great tool for mobilizing your audience. Need books sold? Need a detractor harassed? Need a politician elected? By selecting your preferred outcome and predicting it in a “prophetic” manner, you can manipulate people into helping you make it happen!
But on the other hand, what if your prediction is wrong? Won’t that undermine your standing as a “prophet of God”.
Fortunately, the answer is “No”!
Believe it or not, you can get as much as 75% of your “prophetic” predictions completely wrong and remain a “prophet of God” in great standing! Even better, many “prophets” today are able to substantially increase their product revenue through recurring failed “prophecies”.
How?
Well that’s what we’re here to share with you today! We’re bringing you the complete how-to guide for prophesying future results, just in time for one of this year’s biggest events:
The U.S. Presidential election!
Editor’s Note: Last Sunday, the nation witnessed a horrific tragedy in Orlando, Florida. Over 50 patrons of a gay nightclub were murdered in the worst mass shooting in US history. In the aftermath of this tragedy, we’ve seen beautiful outpourings of love and solidarity across the country. We’ve also seen many who would place themselves under the “Christian” banner double down on hateful rhetoric and verbally attack the LGBT community.
First, we at Brazen Church want to offer our voice in love and solidarity with the LGBT community. Second, we want to help move the conversation on homosexuality forward by dismantling a common misconception – the idea that the Bible offers a crystal clear take on this issue. The reality is that homosexuality in the Bible is anything but straightforward… but you may not realize that if you read in English.
The following post was written by Dr. Donald Haynes for The United Methodist Reporter ahead of the 2016 General Conference in Portland. Dr. Haynes is a highly respected minister and a longtime writer, and despite coming from a more “conservative” theological stream, this is what he sees when he takes an honest look at scripture.
In the January-February 2016 issue of “Good News” magazine, Thomas Lambrecht wrote a very helpful article in which he presents quite clearly four of the proposals being circulated prior to the 2016 General Conference regarding the ordination, the appointment or the marriage of persons of LGBTQ sexual orientation. Any reader should thank Tom for bringing these into focus for all elected delegates to preview. I respectfully present a response.
Prior to his excellent specificity about potential legislative proposals, Tom wrote, “The root issues are biblical authority–‘will we keep church teaching in line with what the Scriptures say….’? This rather pejorative statement implies that the Scriptures speak with a unilaterally definitive voice on homosexuality. That is a stretch! To my knowledge, there are only seven biblical references to homosexuality. The most frequently quoted is Leviticus 18:21-22 that is in the context of Mosaic cultic laws, most of which we ignore. Most likely, he joins this text with other interpretative voices in Romans 1:26-27, I Corinthians 6:9-10 or even I Timothy 1:8-10. At least these are the passages over which I have more deeply poured and whose interpretations I have researched from biblical commentaries.
For me, there are some major stumbling blocks in making the Bible a manual of jurisprudent specificity rather than holistic principles:
(Author’s Note: This started with direction and then sort of spiraled out on me. After sitting on it for way too long, I’m just releasing it’s imperfect self into the wild, because I think there are some things mentioned in here that people need to be talking about, and maybe some of you will resonate with some of those issues and write about them more eloquently than I do here.)
I think my least favorite part about growing up charismatic was the desperation.
My entire existence boiled down to this perpetual standard of “hunger”. How desperate was I for God?
Sometimes, I felt genuinely desperate, and ironically, those were the “good” times, because I could tell I was being genuine. Other times, I couldn’t quite muster up that emotional longing, but I sure would try, all the while berating myself for not being genuinely “hungry for more of God.”
I remember one time, I even came up with this surprisingly wise philosophy, where I reasoned that if I wasn’t longing for God, I could at least long to be longing for Him. And maybe… if that didn’t work, I could long to long to be longing for Him.
Deep stuff.
Why so intent on this hunger/longing/desperation?
Well… because that’s the only way God was going to move… to bring this thing called “revival” to a world that was on it’s way to Hell.
The word on the pulpit was that if I didn’t want our loving God to perpetually roast everyone for infinity and beyond, we needed to get millions of people SO desperate for God to move, that He would oblige.
But even more than that, I think the answer was that I really wanted to be God’s best friend. I wanted to be the one He picked to release His supernatural power and reconcile the world to Himself.
And I hated myself for not wanting that even more than I already did.
Reading is good for you. It’s full of Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Calcium…
But I don’t have to convince you. You already love reading. That’s why you are reading at this very moment… reading this pointless intro to a collection of things you actually want to read.
Many of these authors will disagree with each other on various issues, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Like Brazen Church, these books aren’t about replacing your old ideology with a new, equally dogmatic one. They’re about breaking the box that we’ve placed God in and exposing us to a more complex, dynamic, and beautiful reality than our minds have made room for. You’ll learn a ton from every single one of these authors.
‘Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.’ – John Wooden
We all want to be part of a community that loves us, validates us, and even agrees with us. We thrive among “like-minded” friends who share our view of the world, and thanks to today’s connectivity, finding our “tribe” has never been easier. Regardless of where you fall on the ideological spectrum, it’s incredibly easy to find a group that agrees with you wholeheartedly and will affirm your views.
It’s also incredibly easy to find a group that agrees with you wholeheartedly, will affirm your views, and will join you in mocking and disparaging anyone who disagrees with your shared perspectives.
No group is immune to this phenomenon. Let me say that again. No tribe, group, club, or community is immune to this phenomenon.
Don’t worry, I’m not talking about the TV show.
It’s time to talk about the scientific theory popularly known as “The Big Bang Theory” because Christians should LOVE this thing. I’m not saying we should tolerate it or “not feel threatened” by it. I’m not saying we should try to find some common ground because the scientific community supports it.
I AM saying we should 100% publicly adore everything about this monumental piece of scientific discovery. The Church should literally be it’s biggest advocate.
The Big Bang Theory represents one of history’s most incredible opportunities for Christians to stand hand-in-hand with the scientific community.
And yet, here in America, we’ve completely rejected this opportunity. Mention the Big Bang Theory to most pastors and they will practically vomit in their mouths in disgust. Try to discuss it, and…