jim jones jungle juice anyone?

on a morbid, but interesting note: tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the jim jones massacre that took place in guana. for those of you not familiar with the story, jim jones was a pastor-turned-cult-leader that led a group of some 400 followers to the jungles of guana where he convinced them to take place in a ritual murder-suicide. those who refused or survived were chased down and shot by his "temple guards". they were told that guana was to be the promised land, but when they arrived, they found a place that was far from paradise, but were told they could not leave. these were intelligent people, too. they were not some kooks with iq's of 50. they were bankers, lawyers, company presidents, men, women, and children. jim jones was so convincing that he even met with president jimmy carter at one point. (and given president carter's latest meetings, it now comes as no surprise!) what happened? how could one man, lead so many seemingly intelligent people astray?

the Bible is very clear about those whom God places in positions of leadership. He says in the book of James, that leaders will be held to a far stricter judgment. Jesus said that if a person was to lead a "little one" astray, it would be better for a large stone to be tied to that person's neck and cast into the sea. God takes the role of pastor very seriously.

however, as we have seen throughout history, whenever a person who is in leadership goes astray, the results are usually catastrophic, whether that be in a church, an organization, or a country. a historian made the observation that every leader in history who was prideful, and claimed to have the answers to problems, ultimately led their followers to ruin (hitler, nero, napolean, etc.) that is one of the things that scared me about the past election. neither candidate had a sense of humility about them, but rather both were very adamant in their claims to have the answers to america's problems. it is said that pride goes before a fall, and i worry about the fall to come.

however, no other place do we see disasterous results of leadership gone awry than we do in the pastorate. wars have started because of divisions within the body of Christ. the name of Christ has been blasphemed among the people because of haughty preachers, building their towers of babel just to climb to the top and come crashing down in glorious spectacle in front of every news camera in the world. whenever a preacher starts to rely on himself and not on God, then we see destruction awaiting ahead, and the enemy blinding the eyes so as to not see the warning signs. the apostle paul said that if anyone, be it man or angel, preaches a different gospel than the one he taught, then let that man or angel be cursed. i look around, and i see many preachers that would be listed as cursed in paul's opinion.

i take this very seriously, as i am currently awaiting where God will call me, along with my famliy, to serve Him. the idea of being that leader who leads to destruction, literally frightens me to no end. and so, i have resolved that no matter where i go, or what i do, i will do my best to seek his face. i try and always remember that i am nothing special. there is no difference between me and the person sitting in the pew. we are both called to serve and to minister. the only difference is in the expectations. my standard is higher. whenever we as pastors tend to think to highly of ourselves, or of our wisdom, let us remember jim jones and the legacy he left. it is said that "there but for the grace of God, go I". that is very true. we all have the capacity in us to be a jim jones, because of our sinful nature. let us stay subject to God and His laws, and always rely on His wisdom, not ours!

falling away

But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron
1 Tim 4:1-2 (NASB)

i know it has been a while since i posted, so i thought that i would spend some time and comment on the latest goings-on in our great u.s. of a. as a Christian, i have often wondered about what paul said in 1 Tim. 4:1-2 (see above) about many falling away from the faith. many times, i find myself with a bit of arrogance like peter, saying i would never fall away. moreover, it completely perplexes me how anyone could follow the beast that is mentioned in Revelation. however, in light of the recent election, it has become more apparent to me of the superficiality of many professing Christians.

when we read the Bible, we can see throughout time how God's children always seem to turn their back on Him and follow other gods whenever things did not seem to be going their way. we can see it in the wilderness with the israelites making the golden calf. we can see it when the israelites were exiled to babylon and many of them bowing down to baal or to nebuchadnezzar. in Jesus' time, we see His own disciples fleeing at His arrest. it seems the Bible is full of people running when things get tough. why should today be any different?

in the recent election, we saw americans come out to cast their votes for their candidate. i realized by talking to many professing Christians how easy it is for those who say that they love Christ to "fall away". the choice between the two main candidates seemed to be an easy one for those who professed to believe God's Word. one candidate was in opposition to the widespread slaughtering of innocent babies through the means of abortion, and one candidate was not only in favor of abortion, but also the reprehensible practice of partial birth abortion as well as letting a baby who survived an abortion die in the delivery room by denying him/her care. one candidate was in favor of limiting marriage to be between one man and one woman, another candidate not only favored taking away states' rights to make their own legislation concerning marriage definitions, but also favored federal legislation legalizing gay marriage as well as a new hate speech law making it illegal to say anything negative about homosexuality. while these two items by themselves should be enough for any Christian to make a well-informed, biblical decision, thousands upon thousands of professing Bible-believing Christians voted for the pro-abortion, pro-homosexuality candidate.

why would they do this? two main reasons can be noted. one, was his skin color. a large majority of the black vote went to obama simply because he was black. while it is also true that a lot of white voters did NOT vote for him because he was black, who is to say which form or racism is worst? the second reason, as many have noted, was the condition of the economy. they looked to obama to rescue them from their financial woes as some sort of pseudo-financial savior. excuse me, ladies and gentlemen, but since when do we look to the government for our provision and for our financial stability? i thought God was our supply. i thought that the Bible said that our GOD shall supply all our needs? could this mean that those that voted for obama to fix the economy are looking to him to supply their needs?

this nails home one of the biggest reasons that those in Revelation will support the beast: he will hit them where their hearts are, their pocketbooks. it says very clearly that no man may buy or sell unless he receives the mark of the beast. this is why many will fall away. their precious money will be gone. it rings true, the love of money is the root of all evil. for money, many threw away any sense of loyalty to biblical teaching. please do not get me wrong. i am not saying that obama is the anti-Christ, as many have been. i say that the recent events are evidence supporting that the events in Revelation and 1 Timothy could actually happen.

so what are we as Christians to do? my pastor said it best the sunday before the election. we are to pray for our new president, and we are to yield to his authority as being given by God. the israelites wanted a king, even though they were warned what it would be like, so God gave them saul. maybe He has given america obama, because they thought that was what they wanted. when the apostle paul wrote about supporting the government, nero was caesar of the roman empire. this same nero was responsible for the widespread torture, persecution, and torture of Christians during that time. yet paul was saying that he was to be supported! if that was the case then, it is surely the case now, no matter whether we agree with our new leader or not. God knows the heart, and God can change the heart. so we must pray. we must lift our new president up on a daily basis to make decisions based on what God wants. finally, obama will answer to God one day for his sins, as we know from james that those who lead are held to a stricter judgment. at the same time, we will give an account to God on our obedience to His Word as well. "choose this day america, whom you will serve. as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!"

and thus ends my diatribe on the election.