He is There!

Some history, some Bible, and some understanding of what a True Christian is.

He is There

I read a lot. I’ve read a considerable amount of history, which helps me put many of today’s events into proper focus. For example, in the last thirty years, we’ve seen China move from being a backward country where most people lived in small farming villages to a modern country which manufactures much of what is sold around the world. They now have both the largest military navy – and the largest commercial fleet in the world. The people of China are now rapidly becoming wealthy. How did this happen?

It helps when we realize that in the 1500’s, China was the wealthiest country in the world. They even had fleets that traveled to Africa in the 1400’s to trade. They started up international trade when their emperor announced that taxes could no longer be paid by barter – such as paying your taxes with a cow or five bushels of wheat or ten chickens – but now had to be paid for with silver. Smart Chinese merchants realized that foreign traders could pay for Chinese goods with silver… lots of silver, most of which came from Spanish-operated mines in Potosi, Bolivia. Those silver mines also largely funded the Spanish Armada that attempted to invade England as part of the wars between the Protestants and Catholics in the late 1500’s and early 1600’s.

So when the Communist Party of China allowed people to once again own property and start up businesses in the late 1980’s, the Chinese people responded by imitating their ancestors. And today – just like in ancient times – China considers itself the center of the world. It’s even in the name, for in Chinese, the name of the country is “the Middle Kingdom”.

And the Chinese still hate the Japanese because Japan invaded China in the 1930’s. Many atrocities were committed on both sides, but the war was fought mainly on Chinese territory. And so today, China and Japan are still arguing over some islands that are between them. Old antagonisms do not die quickly - especially when it is to some people’s advantage to keep the hate flowing.

And the Chinese still claim Taiwan. When the Communists won the civil war in 1949, the previous government fled to Taiwan. And for over 75 years, this has been something that the Communist government wants to change, for many reasons.

We Americans tend to think of the policies of different countries as dependent upon the particular president or ruler of the country. But countries have long-term interests that go beyond any particular ruler. For example, for hundreds of years, the Russians have wanted to have a warm seaport that doesn’t freeze over in the winter and gives them access to the ocean. And for hundreds of years, the British have tried to keep them from getting that seaport because then the British might be threatened by a large Russian navy.

China remembers strongly the 1800’s, when they were forced by European powers, America, and Japan to make major concessions because of the superior military strength of those countries. The Chinese call this the “Century of Humiliation”.

And so China has an interest in Taiwan that is based upon geography. Taiwan sits about 100 miles off the coast of China. The Chinese look at Taiwan as an important defensive position against possible European, American, or Japanese invaders, and so they’d like to take it back to keep any possible invaders at a distance.

These international issues of today go back a long, long time. For nearly 1500 years, Iran and the Arabs have disliked each other. It’s a religious thing – the Iranians are mostly Shiite Moslems while the Arabs are mostly Sunni Moslems. It’s something similar to our divide between Protestants and Catholics, only much more intense, as intense as the feelings that were found in Europe during the Reformation of the 1500’s and 1600’s when Spain and France and Italy fought against England and Prussian and Sweden and Holland for control of the German churches. It’s no wonder why missiles are still flying over the Persian Gulf.

These are some of the reasons to study history. It helps us to understand today’s world.

And then there are the aspects mentioned in the Bible.

For example, Daniel was once visited by the angel Gabriel. Gabriel apologized for being late because he was apparently delayed by a fallen angel who ruled over Persia, modern day Iran, and Gabriel had to enlist the help of Michael, the powerful angel who supports the people of Israel. Apparently this supernatural war between Persia (Iran) and Israel goes back into ancient times.

Reading carefully in the Bible, through the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, Job, and Revelation, as well as brief mentions in the rest of the Bible, we get the idea that there are the good angels and there is Satan and his fallen angels. And, in general, we are living in a world which is occupied territory, a world which is ruled by Satan and his fallen angels, which we sometimes call demons and sometimes call devils. The Bible often refers to them as “princes”. These princes each control different parts of the world, different countries.

We Christians and Jews are the Resistance in this occupied territory, established by God and Christ to eventually overthrow Satan.

And who is Satan? He is the devil, which literally means “the deceiver.” He is Lucifer, the angel of light, originally the most beautiful of all the angels. But he was arrogant and wanted to have the place of Christ. Michael led the good angels into a battle in heaven. Satan and his followers – roughly 1/3^rd of the angels – were defeated and cast out of Heaven.

And so, as Peter points out in our reading today from I Peter 5:8-9, tells us: “8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

Just as the Normandy invasion sealed the fate of Germany in World War II – but it took nearly a year for Germany’s final defeat, the Resurrection of Christ sealed the fate of the devil. But it will take a while longer until he is finally and completely defeated. Until then, he fights to slow the spread of Christianity – and, most importantly – to slow the spread of True Christianity.

What do I mean by making this difference between Christianity and True Christianity?

There are actually three ways that people call themselves Christians. Which of these three groups do you fall into? Which of these three groups do your friends fall into?

First of all, there are the people who believe that they are Christians because Grandma was a church-going Christian. They’ve only gone to church a couple of times, but they “believe in God”, they say, and they know they’re not Moslem or Hindu, so they think they must be Christians. They expect to end up in Heaven, but they probably can’t explain much of anything about the life and teachings and Resurrection of Jesus.

A careful look at these people tells us that they are not Christians, but they are “theists”, people who believe in a god – any god. If anything, their religion was taught to them by television shows like “Touched by an Angel”. They don’t see any need to attend church and they are reasonably accepted by American society in their actions because most people obey the laws of the country. Their root problem is that they have never been taught well about Christianity because they have found out about Christianity from their parents – who also did not attend church – or from high school friends – or from the general news.

And because of this, they generally have a belief that all “good” people go to Heaven, and, in many cases, they see themselves as better people than those “hypocrites” that attend church on Sundays but aren’t nice people the rest of the week. And, of course, because of what they’ve picked up about Christians from the news and their friends who also don’t go to church, they believe that very few Christians are actually good people – but they also believe that Christians are supposed to be nearly perfect in their behavior. And since being a hypocrite is considered by them to be the worst sort of behavior, they don’t want to associate with Christians. Even though they also claim to be Christians when pressed in public situations. But that isn’t important because they know they are better than other people – they aren’t hypocrites, after all – and therefore they believe they will go to Heaven when they die and become angels. Just like Clarence did in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life”. (Of course, we don’t become angels when we die. That’s another misunderstanding that Hollywood perpetuates…)

In many ways, these people are like the people who play miniature golf at Myrtle Beach once a year. The rest of their exposure to golf may be on network television, watching gold tournaments, but they are “golfers”. The devil doesn’t mess with these folk because they are right where he wants them – ignorant of the truth, blissfully thinking they are going to Heaven – but bound for Hell.

The next group are the people who John Wesley called, “Almost Christians”. These are people who may attend church, who “believe in Jesus”, and can often tell us about many of the Bible stories. Yet they tend to let their politics guide their theology instead of the other way around, and they focus upon financial and social success more than spiritual success. They are often more concerned with politics and money than with their personal spiritual development because, like ordinary people, they want to control others. It appears to be the natural state of human beings.

They are often concerned that the church survives and grows – but this is just like the men who want the Kiwanis club to grow – growth means long-term survival of this social group and more, younger hands and incomes to do the necessary work to keep the church going.

This group of people is very good at finding fault with other people, and so other people will often find them harsh, judgmental, and more concerned with other people’s actions than with becoming more Christlike themselves. (Does this remind you of the Pharisees of Jesus’ day?") They may “do” Christianity regularly, attending church and even involving themselves deeply in church activities.

But they are like the people who play golf with some friends once a week, competing with each other, but never really getting very good at the game, because none of them are very good at the game and they share each other’s bad habits. Playing the game is more important than becoming excellent at the game. The devil loves these people because they loudly proclaim themselves as Christians but drive others away from the faith. They are focused upon their church’s survival and their prestige rather than on the souls of their neighbors.

And then, there are the mature Christians. These people study the Bible and the works of great Christians with others. They look for the kindest, most developed Christians to teach them. They buy books on Christian thought and read them, thinking through carefully how the lessons apply to themselves. They work on finding their own bad habits, repent of them, and pray for the Holy Spirit to help remove those habits. They don’t pay much attention to the bad habits of other people - or at least they don’t talk about those people much - recognizing that they themselves have enough bad habits of their own to work on with God’s help.

And so they have mostly learned to control their tongues and so they attract people to the faith. And this is why they are the true Christians that the devil hates, the kindly people, the loving people who think before they respond, and are working constantly to grow closer to Christ.

They are like those few golfers who pay the country club pro for lessons. They are like the few who are up early several days a week, practicing their strokes. And they are those few who consistently win at the tournaments – they may even have hopes of going pro themselves – and they are willing to put in the time and effort to go make the attempt. These are the true Christians – and the devil spends considerable time trying to distract them with the pleasures and dangers of the world around them, for they are the people who are truly dangerous to Satan. They are the people who actually grow the Kingdom of God and steal souls from Satan.

Peter gave specific instructions that we might progress to this stage and handle the devil.

12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

Many years later, this idea was turned into the question: If a Christian persecution were to arrive again, would there be enough evidence, enough testimony of other people to convict you of being a Christian? Or would the prosecutors have to go solely on your say-so?

Peter once more speaks of the core value of humbleness that a Christian must learn:

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

A core part of Christian growth is learning to think honestly about our strengths and weaknesses, our successes and sins. Humbleness is when we compare ourselves to God and Christ instead of comparing ourselves to other mortals. Humbleness comes as we learn that Heaven does not have a limited seating capacity, and so we aren’t in a competition with other people to get into Heaven. God will not look at us and say, “She was not as good as that woman but better than those other three women, and so I’ll let her in.” No, God and Christ want us to become known as people who glorify Him. For when we glorify God or glorify Jesus, we can’t help but recognize that we are truly and justifiably lesser than either. And that is a key to a humble spirit that loves God for God’s power and loves Jesus for His sacrifice.

Peter wants us to remember that God has been there since the beginning and is still there. God will lift us up when appropriate. But the Apostle give us more instructions – and remember that Peter had been there. He once denied Jesus three times that awful night before Jesus was executed. Peter had faced the devil, was humbled, and needed to be lifted up by Jesus - who told the disciples - “and Peter” to meet him at a particular place after His Resurrection. So Peter warns us:

8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

According to Peter, the devil is after us, trying to destroy the true Christians. We are not the only people dealing with a harsh world that is against us. Believers all over the world suffer also – most much more than we do.

I know of countries where attempting to convert someone to Christianity is grounds for a death sentence. If you watch British television mysteries, it is a sure bet that the Christian character has some weird fetish or is the murderer. In many Middle Eastern countries, Christian communities have their churches bombed on Easter – and that is a key reason those people are moving to America, Canada, or Australia.

But the devil is looking to destroy you with temptations and struggles. Keep in mind who you represent – and how the entire community of Christianity is represented by how you act to others. Do you grumble because of your struggles? Or do you rejoice that God is strengthening you for future work?

Peter finally gives us hope, because God… is… there!

10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.

So let’s go back to the first part – the troubles throughout the world – and look at how we can survive them and become stronger.

When the war in the Gulf began, much of the world’s oil reserves were what are known as “floating reserves”. This is oil that is on a tanker somewhere, perhaps in the middle of the ocean.

Over the last couple of months, almost all of that oil has now docked and was unloaded. This leaves us with the reserves that are being held in storage on land, such as the at the large storage tanks in Cushing, OK, or at refineries. These will now begin to be drained.

Europe will begin seeing real shortages of oil in a couple of weeks – and this will raise the price of oil and gasoline substantially. America has more storage than Europe, but we will begin to see real shortages develop in about six weeks – call it the end of June.

At that time, the prices of gasoline and diesel oil will likely jump much higher. And with the increases in diesel oil, the prices of everything delivered by truck or train will go up. And in some cases, there will be shortages.

Even if the war totally ends tomorrow, it will take about 3-4 months to get the oil flowing again, and about 6 months to get things back in balance.

And there is another issue developing. Hantavirus.

Hantavirus is a rat-and-mouse-based disease. It usually is contacted by inhaling dust from mouse or rat droppings or the droppings of other rodents. The particular strain that is on that cruise ship has been shown to be contagious between people – it can spread from person to person. Not easily, not as bad as COVID, and certainly not as bad as measles but it can spread. And it has spread from one person - the person who encountered the rodents - to another who stayed in the same room onboard the ship - to still another who sat with them on the evacuation flight – and the disease may have spread further. In the USA at last count, 41 people are being quarantined. We might be seeing COVID again.

So over the next couple of weeks, I suggest you begin a careful stockpiling of food and goods that you might need and that will last. Such things as canned food, rice, flour, and dried beans. Fill up your spare gas cans. You might even want to consider the toilet paper we all forgot about last time. Don’t go survivalist-crazy, but make sure you have several months supply of necessary items on hand. And expect to see substantial increases in the prices of just about everything. Make sure you have some sanitary masks and sanitary gloves in case the hantavirus becomes the next epidemic. A few dollars spent today will likely be a good investment over the next few months.

Once again, we will get through this, because God is there. Being prudent says we need to be prepared for both an oil shortage and a hantavirus epidemic. For there are definitely people who would like to see these spread, for they make money when times are difficult – and the Bible tells us that there are also creatures - the fallen angels - who do not like the people of God.

So be prepared. Pray that God helps much of the problem to just go away. And most of all, read through your New Testament once more to remind yourself of what Jesus’ character is.

Why worry about the character of Jesus at this time?

Because that is the character that we are supposed to imitate every day as Christians. Imitating Jesus, falling in love with God, doing only what God wants is the goal of the maturing Christian.

Friends, Christianity isn’t about keeping our church going like any other club. It isn’t about winning political battles. Christ died for you and came back from the dead so that you might follow Him, imitate Him, and live better in both this life and in the eternal life to come. Because Jesus loves each and every person in this world and did not want us to suffer the consequences of the way we were living before we met Him. So learn about Him and follow Him.

Amen.