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You sound Angry, Bitter, and Critical

By Jeremy Myers
12 Comments

You sound Angry, Bitter, and Critical

My neighbor’s name is Carissa. She is twenty-one years old. And she is beautiful.

But she has a very … strange relationship with her boyfriend. His name is Kirk. It is not that Kirk is abusive … not really. I suppose you could say he is controlling and manipulative, but I don’t even know if that is exactly accurate. Something just seems “off.”

He wants to know where she is at all times, even though she hardly ever knows what he is doing most of the week.

He demands to know where she spends her money, and also requires that she contribute a portion of her money to their “date fund.”

Their “dates” are really something closer to appointments. They go on one date per week, from 7:00-9:00 PM every Friday night. If she is late or has to cancel, Kirk wants to know why. If she doesn’t wear the right clothes on their dates, he chides her for not looking her best. He constantly reminds her that if she wants their relationship to work, these dates are critical.

But they do the same thing every week for their date. He picks her up at 7:00 sharp. They listen to music on the way to a restaurant. He only lets her pick from 20 “date approved” songs. And they go to the same restaurant every week. He orders food for her without asking what she wants. What he orders varies from week to week, and while it is occasionally the cheapest thing on the menu, it is never the most expensive.

During the meal, he asks her how her week was, but doesn’t listen to her answers. He does most of the talking. When the meal is over, they go for a walk around a local park while holding hands. Then, at 8:50 PM they get back into their car so that he can drop her off at her house by 9:00 sharp. He gives her a kiss on the cheek and says, “I’ll see you next week! And remember, I’ll be thinking about you all week long.”

That’s their date.

During the week, Kirk sends her emails and text messages, but they all sound identical to the ones he sent last week. “I’m thinking about you!” he texts. “Can’t wait to see you this Friday! How’s your week going?” But when she texts back, he never replies.

I could go on and on about this strange relationship Carissa has with her boyfriend.

holding hands

But last week something happened …

This relationship has been going on for several years now, and I have gently tried to tell her that she should dump this guy and look for a new boyfriend. She always says that I don’t understand what they have together. That their relationship is fine. That he loves her and she loves him.

But last week, as she told me how great her relationship was, I must confess I got a little upset.

I said to her, “You could do so much better! You are young, beautiful, creative, talented! There is so much you could do. So much you could experience! So much of life you are missing out on! This guy Kirk … I don’t know what his deal is … but he is not right for you! He doesn’t really care about you, despite all his lame texts and empty emails and pointless dates. He apparently just likes to show your picture to his friends and say, ‘That’s my girlfriend.’ But that’s not a relationship! Get out! Leave him! I hate this guy. I hate what he does to you! He is not good! He doesn’t make you shine! He doesn’t honor you, respect you, or treat you like the princess you are! He does not love you. He is only using you.”

And do you want to know what Carissa said to me?

She looked at me with sort of a shocked, hurt, confused look on her face, and she said, “You sound angry … Are you bitter about a bad relationship from your past? … Why are you so critical of my boyfriend?”

I was stunned.

Angry? Bitter? Critical?

I don’t want to be any of those things …

Was she right?

I do often get upset at things when I shouldn’t. And I have had rocky times in my past relationships. My marriage isn’t perfect. And could it be that I was frustrated at my own failures as a husband and was unfairly and critically projecting these onto her boyfriend?

Maybe I should just back off and raise up my hands and say, “You’re right. I’m sorry. I know very little about your relationship. I wish the two of you all the best.”

But then I realized something.

If Carissa were my daughter, would I feel any different?

No! In fact, my love for my daughter would only amplify my feelings. If Carissa were my daughter, I would absolutely, definitely, be angry, bitter, and critical. Love would demand that I be angry, bitter, and critical.

Why? Because my daughter deserves better! Since I love her, I am required to fight for her. To hate how she is being treated. To be bitter that some jerk is treating her like trash. My love for her requires me to be critical of him, his ways, his tone, his attitude, and his complete lack of genuine love for my daughter.

So absolutely I was angry! Angry about a fake relationship that was passed off as the genuine thing!

You better believe I was bitter! Bitter that someone else’s daughter was getting treated so callously!

And of course I was critical! Someone needed to be critical of this guy so that hopefully Carissa would see that how she was being treated was not right and that she deserved so much better!

I told her these things, but she didn’t hear them. She was convinced that she knew better and that my “anger, bitterness, and critical spirit” were causing me to only see the bad things in her deadbeat boyfriend.

She admitted that her boyfriend and her relationship with him wasn’t perfect, but said, “There’s no such thing as a perfect relationship.”

“That’s true,” I told her. “But there certainly are better relationships than the one you’ve got.”

“I used to think so too,” she replied. “But now I realize that those sorts of relationships are only in movies and books. We all long for those sorts of relationships, but the sooner we realize they don’t actually exist, the better off we’ll be.”

better relationships

I understand where she is coming from. I do. I was in bad relationships when I was young, and nobody else could tell me they were bad. I had to come to that realization on my own.

And like her, I believed that there were no relationships like the ones in movies and books. But I have also started to see in my marriage to my own wife, that unless you believe that your relationship can get better, and work toward that goal, it will only get worse.

So I trust that Carissa will soon learn that her boyfriend is not good for her. I hope that she will leave him and will find the relationship she longs for her in her heart but doesn’t believe actually exists.

I hope she will eventually learn to see that although I was angry, bitter, and critical, it was only because I loved her, and wanted something better for her than what she has.

abusive church … By the way, this entire story was a parable.

I do not have a neighbor named Carissa. I don’t even know anyone named Carissa.

But I do have a neighbor named “Christian.”

… And she has a boyfriend named “church.”

This post was part of the May 2015 Synchroblog on the topic of anger. Here are other contributors to this month’s topic:

  • Mark Votava – Becoming Dreamers Again
  • Carol Kuniholm – God’s Economy: Managing Anger Assets
  • Clara Ogwuazor Mbamalu – The Easiest Way to Control and Manage Anger 
  • K.W. Leslie – Anger
  • Glenn Hager – The Many Faces of Anger
  • Paul Meier – The Value of Anger 
  • Pastor Fedex – Chain Reaction 
  • Michael Boden – Anger is Not a Godly Emotion
  • Kathy Escobar – underneath anger.

God is Redeeming Church Bible & Theology Topics: anger, bitter, church, critical spirit, love, synchroblog, Theology of the Church

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The Satanic Messiah vs. The Suffering Messiah

By Jeremy Myers
7 Comments

The Satanic Messiah vs. The Suffering Messiah

Have you heard of the Satanic Messiah? Probably not, since most people usually don’t think of Satan and the Messiah as having anything to do with each other.

Yet surprisingly, worship of the Satanic Messiah may be more common than we realize.

In fact, such worshippers may exist in our own town … maybe even in our own church!

What is the Satanic Messiah?

The Satanic Messiah usually goes by the name of “Jesus,” and is often confused with Jesus. In fact, the Satanic Messiah Jesus is identical to the Suffering King Jesus in nearly every way.

follow-me-satan-temptation-of-jesus-christ-1903

There are only three things that set them apart. While the Satanic Messiah looks like Jesus, acts like Jesus, and talks like Jesus, the Satanic Messiah has accepted and adopted the three values of the Satanic kingdom which were offered to Jesus in Matthew 4 and Luke 4. In Matthew 4 and Luke 4, Jesus rejected the Satanic offerings of (1) self-reliance, (2) control over others, and (3) glory before men. And while Jesus rejected these things when offered to Him by Satan, the Satanic Messiah has accepted and adopted such offerings, and has even called them “good.”

Where is this Satanic Messiah so that we might avoid Him and warn others to do the same?

This Satanic Messiah is the Messiah which is often preached from the pulpits and beheld in the books of modern Christianity. If modern Christianity has patterned itself after Jesus, then the Jesus we present to the world is not the Jesus who rejected the offers of self-reliance, control over others, and glory before men, but is the “Jesus” who has accepted such values and now holds them up as virtues.

Where is such a “Jesus”? He can be found all around us. He can sometimes be found in our churches, homes, and in our own treatment of others.

If the church is the representative of Jesus to the world, then to the degree that the church seeks to meet our own needs before the needs of others, desires to control the beliefs and behaviors of others (both inside and outside the church), and chases after glory, fame, power, wealth, and recognition before men, is the same degree to which the church presents Jesus as a Satanic Messiah to the watching world.

Don’t be shocked by such a statement. This is not new. Mankind has always tried to make God in our own image, and God has always been trying to reveal Himself to us as He really is. We have wanted a God of self-reliance who needs nothing and nobody, who glorifies Himself by destroying His enemies and forcing every molecule into submission to His will, and who requires that all people worship and adore Him lest they face the torment of His eternal wrath.

Satanic MessiahBut in the face of this grotesque depiction of a manmade-God, God has been trying to show us since the very beginning in Genesis 1, that He is a God of light, love, hope, healing, mercy, grace, and forgiveness. As a result of God’s eternal love, He created human beings so that we might love Him in return. He wants our love, but knowing that He cannot force love, He woos us and invites us and calls us to Him, but we, being the worst of all possible lovers, slander His name, drag Him through the mud, tie Him up in a dark corner, and eventually even crucify Him on a barren hill. And all the while we declare that it is God Himself telling us to do these things.

It’s insanity. When God sends His messengers of grace and love to show us what He is really like, we get so upset that someone is threatening our idea of a God-who-looks-like-us, that in the name of God we kill the very messengers of God. This is what we have been doing since the very beginning. It’s what we’re doing today. It is also what we did in the days of Jesus when the “image of the invisible God” walked among us. Jesus was not despised, rejected, condemned, and ultimately killed by the sinners and so-called “enemies of God,” but by those who claimed to know God best.

The Messianic Secret

All of this better helps us understand what many Bible scholars call “the Messianic secret” in the Gospels. Have you ever noticed that as Jesus went around preaching and performing miracles, almost any time someone recognizes Him as the Messiah, He instructs them to keep quiet about this and tell nobody else? Since we all assume that Jesus came to declare Himself as the long-awaited Messiah, we get confused when Jesus prohibits people from telling others that He is the Messiah.

Why would Jesus want to keep His identity secret? Why does He want His role as the Messiah to remain a secret?

The reason, I believe, is because the Messiah the people wanted was not the Messiah Jesus came to be. The people of Israel wanted a warrior Messiah, one who would slay the enemies of Israel, overthrow the corrupt and pagan Roman Empire, slaughter the wicked, and set up Israel as the ruling nation over all the world.

The Messiah the people of Israel wanted was the same Messiah that Satan offered to Jesus in Matthew 4 and Luke 4.

Jesus knew that if word that “The Messiah has come!” spread around the countryside, many people would start little rebellions in their towns, believing that this was what the “Messiah” wanted them to do. Thousands of people would show up with swords in hands, ready to follow the “Messiah” into battle against Rome. Since this is not what Jesus wanted, and not at all the kind of Messiah He came to be, He told people to keep quiet about Him being the Messiah. He needed to show them what kind of Messiah He was before He would let them announce that the Messiah had come.

The Confession of Peter

We see this exact same scenario play out on a smaller scale in Matthew 16. Jesus asks His disciples who He is, and Peter, by the Holy Spirit, says that Jesus is the Messiah (Matt 16:16). Jesus praises him for this answer, but then immediately tells them not to let anybody else know (Matt 16:20). A few verses later we learn why. Jesus instructs His disciples that since He is the Messiah, He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed.

But the disciples do not want to hear this. Peter, the one who just proclaimed that Jesus was the Messiah, pulls Jesus aside and tells Him to stop saying such things (Matt 16:22). The Messiah is to kill His enemies; not be killed by them. The Messiah is to rule and reign and conquer; not suffer and die. At least, this is what Peter thinks.

How does Jesus respond? He rebukes Peter as speaking for Satan (Matt 16:23). He says that the Messiah which Peter has in mind has nothing to do with the ways of God, but is based entirely on the ways of men. This is the Satanic Messiah.

Jesus then goes on to say that if we truly follow Him, we will follow Him into death and self-sacrifice (Matt 16:24-26), not into power, glory, self-advancement, and control over others.

The Spirit of the Anti-Christ

When we put all this together, then we also begin to understand the New Testament teaching about the anti-Christ.

temptation of JesusIf the Christ is the Suffering King who bleeds and dies for His enemies, who loves and accepts all, and who has no desire to control others but only to serve them, then any “Christ” which is used to defend war and violence toward enemies, to reject and divide from others, and to control and manipulate others for personal gain, is the anti-Christ.

Any portrayal of Christ that allows Jesus to accept the offers that Satan made to Jesus in Matthew 4 and Luke 4 is a false Christ, an anti-Christ, a Satanic Christ.

The Church and the Satanic Messiah

But has not the church accepted and adopted for ourselves the very things that Jesus rejected in Matthew 4 and Luke 4?

If so, are we not wanting, desiring, proclaiming, and following a false Christ, an anti-Christ … a Satanic Christ?

In many ways, the church has become just like Peter.

Though Peter understood that Jesus was the Christ, he did not understand what it meant for Jesus to be the Christ. The church has been making the same mistake ever since. The Messiah that Jesus rejected is often the Messiah that much of the church proclaims.

temptation of JesusWhen we lust for power over others instead of giving power to others, we are following the Satanic Messiah.

When we desire to control the beliefs and behaviors of others instead of trusting that God will lead them as He leads us, we are following the Satanic Messiah.

When we call for the death of our enemies “in Jesus’ name” instead of seeking to serve our enemies in His name, we are following the Satanic Messiah.

When we chase after wealth, power, prestige, glory, and fame instead of choosing to love, give, bless, and forgive, we are following the Satanic Messiah.

Instead of helping people in hopeless situations, we give them authority figures who tell them what to do.

Instead of seeing that we are all brothers and sisters on this earth and that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, we create false divisions based on skin color, cultural traditions, religious preferences, and invisible geographical boundaries called “borders.”

Instead of seeking to be reconciled to our enemies, we seek revenge upon them by asking leaders to bomb them, kill them, or at the bare minimum, round them up and lock them away.

We cry out for freedom from oppression, not so that oppression can cease, but so that we ourselves can become the oppressors.

We vote in leaders who promise to change everything else so that we ourselves do not need to change.

The Satanic Messiah is alive and well, and I sometimes think he is worshipped and followed more than the one true Messiah, Jesus, our Suffering King.

Which Messiah do you worship, and why?

God is Redeeming Church, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: christ, control, Jesus, Luke 4, Matthew 4, Messiah, power, satan, temptations, Theology of Jesus, Theology of the Church

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What a Day in the Life of the Church Looks Like for me

By Jeremy Myers
3 Comments

What a Day in the Life of the Church Looks Like for me

all about eveI am participating with several other authors and bloggers in a preparation for a conference in Portland called “All About Eve.” The other contributors are:

  • Wm. Paul Young, author of the The Shack
  • Deidre Havrelock, author of The Starving Church (and other books)
  • Skye McKenzie, author of Forty Days to Breakthrough
  • “Eve,” a follower of Jesus who has recently stopped “attending church”

The situation is that “Eve” has numerous questions about how to follow Jesus outside of the four walls of institutional Christianity. Go read her introduction here. I will be writing as her “pastor” to provide input and suggestions about how she and her family can do this. I put my introductory post up here.

All About Eve

I will be writing my post for the All About Eve blog on Thursdays for the next 40 weeks. I will be posting an excerpt of my blog post here, and then inviting you to go over to the other blog to read the rest of the post.

Here is an excerpt from today’s post:

Eve,

You have asked what it looks like for my family to go to church.

Let me try to describe it.

It all begins in the morning when my wife and I roll out of bed. While my wife wakes up our three girls and then makes breakfast, I stumble into the kitchen to make some coffee. Usually, my wife is several steps ahead of me, and the pot of black magic (aka “The Elixir of Life”) is ready to drink.

After breakfast, we all hop into the car and drive over to a local brick building. We go in and say “Hello” to the greeter at the front door. He sometimes gives us a little piece of paper that will help us know what is going on there that day. We then walk around a little bit, occasionally talking to people we meet. At one point in the morning, we give some money to a person standing behind a counter, and we often chat a little bit with them as well.

Then we leave Walmart with the things we just bought and go back out to our car.

The items we just bought are for a small gathering that will take place later that day at our neighbor’s house. We met him when we first moved into the neighborhood, and we quickly learned that he too is a follower of Jesus. So every so often, we gather at his house. Usually, before we begin, he shows us a project he is working on in his back yard, or a picture he painted when he was younger. His wife is also there, and she talks about their health concerns. Sometimes there is food involved, but not always. Then we get down to business.

On this day, we go outside into his front yard and start raking leaves. You see, he just recently had heart surgery, and is not able to rake all the leaves that have fallen. He also cannot run errands yet. We went to Walmart to buy them some food and household items, and are now at his house raking up the leaves in his front yard. When we are done, he thanks us profusely, and we chat a bit more before going home for lunch.

To read the rest of what a day in the life of the church looks like for me, go read the article here.

God is Redeeming Books Bible & Theology Topics: All About Eve, attending church, be the church, being the church, church, going to church, Theology of the Church

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You will never believe how Jesus spent $3,150,000,000 in 2014!

By Jeremy Myers
51 Comments

You will never believe how Jesus spent $3,150,000,000 in 2014!

billions of dollarsArthur Sido recently brought to my attention that in 2014, United States churches spent $3,150,000,000 on church buildings.

$3,150,000,000

And this amount is down 80% since 2002!

I wrote about this in one of my books (I cannot recall which one), and I have written previously on this blog about how churches spend money. See:

  • Money, Missions, & Ministry
  • How Churches can Solve the World’s Water Crisis
  • Tithing $50,000,000,000

But it recently occurred to me that since Christians are the representatives of Jesus Christ on earth, since we are His ambassadors, since we are the “Body of Christ,” this means that when we spend $3,150,000,000 on church buildings in one year, it is Jesus Christ spending this amount of money in one year.

We are spending HIS money.

And it really made me wonder … If Jesus had $3,150,000,000 to spend, do I really think He would spend it on church buildings?

Somehow, I really, really doubt it…

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: church, church buildings, Discipleship, ministry, missions, money, Theology of the Church, tithing

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Final Manuscript of my Newest Book Has been Submitted

By Jeremy Myers
2 Comments

Final Manuscript of my Newest Book Has been Submitted

I don’t want you to miss out! You can get a free digital copy of my newest book. Keep reading to learn how…

Dying to Religion and Empire

Dying to Religion and EmpireI submitted the final electronic files today for my next book which I am releasing on Monday.

The book is called Dying to Religion and Empire and is about how Christianity can regain some of our ability to be salt and light in this world by re-imagining how we practice our rites and how we stand up for our rights.

There have already been several reviews of the book posted on Amazon. You can go read them here: Dying to Religion and Empire Reviews.

This book is going to ruffle some feathers as I not only challenge the practices of baptism and communion (die to your rites), but also raise questions about the legal rights of Christians to the freedom of speech, to bear arms, and to various other rights guaranteed by the “First Amendment” and the “Bill of Rights.”

You Can Get a Free Digital Copy

As with all my book, I send out free digital copies to those who indicate they want them by signing up for my email list.

(And just for signing you, you get a free digital copy of one of my most popular eBooks, Skeleton Church.)

By signing up for the newsletter, you will Get a FREE copy of The Skeleton Church AND free eBooks about Scripture and theology every few months!

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God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, dying to religion and empire, ebooks, free books, free ebooks, Theology of the Church

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