The Curiousness of Causes, Part The First

Well, at least I hadn't had time to unpack before the last move. Being technologically inhibited by a slow moving connection this morning, I have not yet transferred that sum of work from the previous blog (being 1 post) and so I will simply copy and paste enough to introduce the purpose of this diatribe and include it at the end of this post.

Part, the First
"Christians and non-Christians readily unite over 'secular' causes and it seems the Church is at least willing (if not eager) to accept, without qualification, the help of any of those who claim a belief in God "

There is no shortage of projects to be found where you will find both Christians and non-Christians working together. The majority of Christians are employed by secular organizations and work with non-Christians every day and there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, that's exactly what we are called to do. God is not in need of us to bring light to Him, but rather light to those dark places where the Son has not yet reached.

There are other places where we work towards a common goal-- humanitarian causes, sports teams, education, etc -- all of these are causes for which the believer and the non-believer unite and work together. These are not all truly the same, but for the sake of this argument their differences are not of great importance. We will justify them with the sweeping and inclusive claim of 'bettering' society, though I will not argue that society's bettering is a Good task in and of itself. In fact, I would argue quite differently if that were the topic at hand, but again this is not what concerns me most.

My greatest concern is those areas where the Christian and Secular cultures meet which we have not yet discussed and that is in doing God's work. Now, I realize that's a vague term, but this is a blog, not a book, so I'll simply define 'God's work' as that work done by the believer through the power of the Spirit for the express purpose of building the Kingdom of God. Now, it's quickly seen from our definition that it would be impossible for a non-believer to perform Kingdom work because they do not have the Spirit. That, brothers and sisters, is precisely the problem. Let's look at Ezra 4:1-3. To set the stage, Zerubbabel was leading the Jewish exiles from King Cyrus back to Jerusalem for the purpose of rebuilding the Temple (around 538 b.c.).

"Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the LORD, the God of Israel,2 they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, 'Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.' But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, 'You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us."

Here we have people coming to the men of God and saying, look, we know about your God, we've been worshipping him for a long time, this project it going to be pretty tough and it looks like you could use a hand, why don't you let us help you out? How large does the task facing the Body of Christ seem? Is it not ominous to look at the darkness in the world and think of what work is left to be done? Is it not tempting to take the outstretched hand of the world when it offers its services, be it money or advice or ideas or strategies or any of those things which at the moment it may seem we lack?

I fear this is exactly what has happened throughout much of the church in America. We have accepted wolves into the fold (see this commentary from Dr. Albert Mohler) and quite willingly. How many churches take the tithes of unbelievers who are members and how many churches have pastors who have been ordained without professing a belief to those most basic doctrines of the Christian faith and how many churches employ the strategies of secular business which plays on the baseness of man in running their own operations? You will not have to look far to see the hand of the Enemy working among the saints of God. What better way is there to kill, steal, and destroy than from within?

Oh, that we could be as strong and as steadfast as those men who said 'You have nothing to do with us in building our house to our God; but we alone will build to the LORD!' In our culture of tolerance and acceptance and pluralistic truth, we cannot afford to employ wolves to guard the henhouse (so to speak). It may seem like a grand notion to think of all humanity, all religions and non-religions, joining together for a common cause, uniting to fight some great evil or injustice, but that is only an illusion, a deception from the great deceiver himself. Do not forget the canvas upon which that picture is painted. It is a world of good and evil before he picks up his brush and the sides are not decided by 'causes' but by salvation. God alone is good and it is His cause and that only that we must fight for and that.. is the topic of Curiosity, the Second..

Until we meet again, 'keep your hand at the level of your eye.'

"I'm sure many of you have noticed the readiness with which we all join together for a common cause. The cases are endless, but here's a few examples from very recent news: -A community comes together, a nation really, rallying around the trapped miners in Australia -Our nation (and our school and county) rallying around relief efforts following Hurricane Katrina. -A global response to the Tsunami disaster last year -Just last week, thousands around the country, hundreds here at Texas A&M (myself among them) gathered for the cause of Invisible Children. On and on and on it goes. We are quick to rally around almost any and every cause, regardless of nation, race, religion, or creed.

Now there are three curious things I want to make note of, which I will follow up with in later posts though perhaps not in the order in which they appear below.

Curiosity, the First: -Christians and non-Christians readily unite over 'secular' causes and it seems the Church is at least willing (if not eager) to accept, without qualification, the help of any of those who claim a belief in God

Curiosity, the Second: -Those who find a common ground in a 'cause' find little else to dispute over in the course of seeking that end for which they both endeavor

and

Curiosity, the Third -Christians have a very difficult time uniting over anything "