Christ in a Karmic Age

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

By: Erick Erickson  March 29th, 2013 at 03:30

“Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.” – Confucius

Every religion and philosophy has a version of the Golden Rule. Until Christ showed up on the scene two thousand years ago, the rule was almost always expressed in the negative — do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you.

It is, if you will allow, a very libertarian philosophy. We can do X, Y, or Z because they do not harm our neighbors. It is the embodiment of karma in today’s culture. We think that we should be allowed to do that which we please as long as we do not harm others. We think that if we do bad things to others, bad things will be visited on us.

When bad things happen to us or someone else and we think the perpetrator has gotten away with it, the average person tends to think that at some point something bad will happen to the perpetrator. “Karma’s a bitch,” the saying goes.

Either God will smite them or fate will intervene. Likewise, many Christians and others of faith think that when we consciously sin, at some point we are going to be punished, rebuked, or otherwise have our comeuppance. This worldly notion of karma that pollutes even the thinking of many a devoted Christian is not very Biblical and it is something preachers should work harder to combat.

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12

Not only did Christ tell us to refrain from acting in a bad way, but he commanded we act in a positive way. He told us to do to others what we would have them do to us. It was not a live and let live philosophy. It was also not a call for the good to be a worldly good — affirming others as they are that they might affirm us. It was a call to do Christ’s good and to love sacrificially as Christ loves. In a karmic age, Christ forces us to confront the idea of grace — a grace that means we have forgiveness without a sword of Damocles hanging over us at any moment dropping should we run afoul of karma.

Grace means Christ has chosen us though we are sinners.  His act of grace towards us, and not ourselves, negates karma.  It means we must show mercy and offer forgiveness even when we wish not to.  It means we strive to be better than we are as Christ works in us, irreversibly changing us through the process of sanctification.  Grace makes us more aware of our sin because we remember Christ paid for our sins.  

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Titus 2:11-12

Karma paints an incomplete picture accepted by too many as the complete picture of life.  Grace paints the whole and true picture.  Those who believe in karma can accept that “the wages of sin is death” (though they often ignore what sin actually is) and even that “God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”  But karma can neither fathom nor accept that Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” and that “no one comes to the Father except through” Christ.  Karma cannot accept that “it is finished,” a statement not of succumbing to death, but of the execution of a contract between the Savior and the saved.

If we had Christ on the cross without grace, the cost of karma would mean our instant death as all our sins were placed on Christ. Karma can only exist in the absence of Christ on the cross because no amount of good deed could ever offset the negative karma of our sins leading to Christ’s death. But his resurrection and conquering sin and death gives us His grace. Christ’s grace overwhelms the world through a living sacrifice the blood from which washes away all sins.

Christ’s sacrifice and grace make us aware of the conflict in ourselves.

Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25

Too many in the modern age embrace karma, not Christ. They see no need to be rescued from their body. They do not see themselves a slave to sin because they reject what Christ’s grace would show us to be sin. The scripture they quote most often is “God helps those who help themselves,” which is not scripture, but Aesop.

Karma tells the world to do no harm and that should one do harm, harm will be visited back on them; do good and good will be visited back on them. Karma is of the world and conforms to the world. As the world drifts further and further from Christ, the acts that return good karma less and less reflect the Ruler of Heaven, and more and more reflect the ruler of this world. Those who do good in the world of karma hoping for good karma back, do things that please the world hoping the world will please them.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1-3

Christ says we must love our neighbor. Karma says we must accept our neighbor’s sin. Grace shows we must love Christ above all other passions. Karma shows we must embrace passion itself because that which is pleasing to the world visits pleasure on the world. Christ says the world is hostile to the things of God, which means the pleasures of the world, descending to hedonism, are hostile to those in Christ. Hedonism leads to self-indulgence. Christ leads to self-awareness.

The battle between Christ and karma leads us to the point Christians face in the twenty-first century. Gay marriage, tolerance of sins of the flesh as alternate forms of normal, the triteness of the worldly repeating “judge not lest ye be judged” without understanding its meaning or context, conform to a karma that itself conforms to the world.

The world ignores that Jesus also said to “go, and from now on sin no more.”

As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Ezekiel 33:11

The world now claims we cannot love the sinner without also loving, or at least tolerating, the sin – even what the sinner does not think is a sin, or is in denial of that sin.  But to tolerate the sins of the flesh and hedonism is to do to others what you should not want them to do to you. The Christian tries to love the sinner, but not the sin — because we want the sinner led away from sin and back to Christ’s grace.  Yet the world treats Christian grace as an insult unless the grace a Christian shows becomes worldly — tolerant of sin without the necessity of repentance or Christ.  This conflict between karma and grace leads more and more Christians into danger, making the gospel they share weak or nonexistent. Worse, as Christians share the gospel devoid of the full measure of grace, including the need to repent, they risk leading people away from God.

They went out and preached that people should repent. Mark 6:12

These Christians begin to think we should just live and let live. They think Christians can leave the world to its sin. They rationalize that the Bible is only relevant to the Christian. They think the sins of the world are of the world and as long they don’t participate, they can give tacit blessing to others participating. They do not realize that the world, hostile to Christ, will not leave the Christian alone. Karma demands Christians accept the world too. As long as there are Christians who hold firm to Christ and the Word, the world and Christ will remain in karmic imbalance. Karma shows no grace and no mercy.

Still, these Christians begin to say things like, “gay marriage does not affect my marriage, therefore why should I care”; “Christ is love therefore we should not stand in the way of love”; and “I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed … this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.”

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. Proverbs 14:12

Grace says we should show love, compassion, and understanding to everyone as we are all sinners. But grace also shows us the cross, Christ on the cross, and the dire consequences of affirming people wherever they are.

Karma says we need to affirm people. Grace says we need to affirm Christ.

Grace gives us a reprieve from karmic beat down for sins because all our sins beat down Christ, put him on a cross, and still he rose again. Christians should not succumb to karmic temptation to conform to the world and avoid the fight. We confront this week Christ, battered, bruised and beaten, bleeding and dying on a cross, then overcoming it all for our sake. He refused to conform to the world so that “everyone who lives and believes in [him] shall never die.”

With Christ risen, we should love our neighbors, but we should also be clear that we cannot condone the very things Christ conquered on our behalf. Christ and his grace are greater than the world and its karma. There can be no truce between grace and karma just as there can be no truce between Christ and the world. Christians opting for the sidelines will be forced to fight. The only question is on which side they will fight. Many are choosing poorly and, in the process, leading away from the cross, not toward it.

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 2 Timothy 4:1-5

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16

http://www.redstate.com/2013/03/29/christ-in-a-karmic-age/

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

Time: Your child's religion may be 'mental illness'

'Overzealous practice of family faith may be a sign of an underlying issue'

by Drew Zahn

According to an article published this week on Time magazine’s website, your child’s “fastidiousness to religious practices” may be a sign of mental illness.

“Religion can be a source of comfort that improves well-being,” begins the article by author Francine Russo. “But some kinds of religiosity could be a sign of deeper mental health issues.”

In the article titled “Can Your Child Be Too Religious?” Russo continues, “If your child is immersed in scripture after school and prays regularly throughout the day, you may breathe a sigh of relief. She’s such a good girl. … Or maybe not. Your child’s devotion may be a great thing, but there are some kids whose religious observances require a deeper look. For these children, an overzealous practice of their family faith – or even another faith – may be a sign of an underlying mental health issue.”

The article explains therapists report seeing children and teens who dive into excessive religiosity as an unhealthy coping mechanism, a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, that’s “no more spiritual than fanatical hand washing.”

The article describes a type of OCD called scrupulosity, where children “obsessively worry that they have committed blasphemy, been impure or otherwise sinned” and warns against religious delusions or hallucinations that parents may be less attuned to “when it occurs under the guise of faith.”

Russo suggests parents evaluate whether faith is a “source of strength” in their children or whether “religious practices and rituals seem to be overtaking their daily lives and displacing their normal activities.”

If the latter, she lists a few guidelines recommended by “experts” for guiding your child through a discussion on faith and seeking counseling, if necessary.

Though the article affirms religion “can be a positive force in the lives of children, just as can be for adults,” Ken Shepherd of the media-bias watchdog organization Newsbusters argues Russo and her list of parental guidelines neglect the true place and power of faith.

“Oddly missing from that list of suggestions was attending religious services with your teen and/or talking to his/her pastor or rabbi to get his perspective on how your child is walking in his/her religious devotion,” Shepherd commented. “It’s also telling how religion is seen as primarily about what the practicing teen is ‘getting out of it’ or ‘makes him feel’ rather than an experience whereby the teenager is seeking to worship God and discover eternal truths about His character and will.”

Shepherd also criticized Time for running the article only a few days before the Easter holiday.

“On some level, this sort of foolishness is to be expected from liberal secular publications,” he continued, “but it’s rather telling that on the holiest week in the Christian calendar that Time magazine is trying to stoke fear in parents – and presumably a predominantly secular parenting demographic, given the magazine’s readership – that teens who are religious, particularly those in more conservative denominations, might not be so right in the head.”

WND Columnist Dr. Lee Hieb also has joined the conversation on the ...

“I see this one coming. This is a one-two sucker punch let loose in the name of civil society and treatment of poor mentally ill people. The government lets us Second Amendment people keep guns, but only if we are not mentally ill – and it is the government which will define ‘mentally ill.’”

She continued, “Psychiatry is a dangerous weapon in the hands of the state. We cannot cede to the government authority to define mental health, nor allow mental health ‘experts’ to decide our fitness to exercise our constitutional rights.”

http://www.wnd.com/2013/03/time-is-your-childs-religion-mental-illn...

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

Hudson Panel: U.S. Ignoring Increasing Christian Persecution

by John Rossomando
IPT News
March 28, 2013

Christian persecution is on the rise throughout the Muslim world, and the United States is leading from behind on the issue, according to a panel that gathered at the Hudson Institute in Washington Wednesday to discuss the book, Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians.

The U.S. State Department and Western governments have been largely silent on the issue of Christian persecution because of political correctness and multiculturalism, panelists said.

"If there is a hiker … abducted in Iran, the State Department has no hesitancy to come out and make a major issue of these cases, but it seems like when Christians are involved, they shy away, " said panelist Nina Shea. "It is found in both Republican and Democratic administrations."

Panelists cited the case of Iranian-American pastor Saed Abedini, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran, as an example of the State Department's failure to take action on its own when Christians are being persecuted. However, the State Department announced Wednesday that Secretary of State John Kerry had called on the Iranians to release Abedini after being pressured to do so by the American Center for Law and Justice and others.

The Obama administration recently refused to send a representative to a hearing by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission two weeks ago to discuss Abedini's plight.

Commission Chairman Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., slammed the administration in a release on March 20, saying that the State Department's failure to send a representative showed that religious freedom was not a priority of its foreign policy. Several State Department officials did meet with Abedini's wife and counsel that same day, however, so claims no one was available to appear at the hearing seem disingenuous, he wrote.

"In short, the Department misled the commission and in doing so sent a dangerous message to rogue regimes the world over – even human rights abuses that compromise the safety and security of American citizens will be met with virtual silence from the U.S. government," Wolf wrote in his letter to Kerry.

In Egypt, the Obama administration is asserting a moral equivalency between actions by government forces and the Coptic Christian minority, said Shea, director of Hudson's Center for Religious Freedom. She noted that the State Department failedto forcefully condemn the Egyptian government for sending tanks and bullets after Copts protested the burning of their churches in October 2011.

The massacre left 24 Copts dead and 272 injured.

"The U.S government put out a response condemning it and asking for both sides to refrain from further violence," Shea said. "Sam Tadros said in NRO at the time that I should tell the military to stand down and tell the Copts to stop dying."

Moderator Eric Metaxis suggested that the Obama administration chose to throw the issue of religious freedom "under the bus" in the interest of greater peace.

But this situation is just a recent manifestation of an increasing wave of radicalism that has swept the Muslim world over the past 10 to 15 years. Christians have found themselves subject to increasing persecution in places such as Indonesia and Senegal that were previously known for their tolerance of non-Muslims.

"The Arab Spring had made things much worse, and it looks like it's not going to get any better," said panelist Lela Gilbert, a co-author of Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians.

Examples of Gilbert's point include recent attacks on Coptic churches in Libya, thesentencing of an Egyptian woman and her family to 15 years in prison for converting to Christianity, and a Fox News report Tuesday of an Egyptian mosque being used to torture Christians.

Additionally, Shea criticized the Obama administration for not stopping the Karzai government from closing Afghanistan's last remaining church in 2010, making it the only country other than Saudi Arabia that doesn't have a church open in it. This event occurred as the U.S. troop surge into the country was on the upswing, and resulting in forcing American diplomats and contractors to worship in secret.

"I attribute this to political correctness, to multiculturalism and an unwillingness to say that Christians are victims in that part of the world," Shea said. "It's trying to be nice … and I can't find any other explanation."

Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Paul Marshall noted that the State Department takes a very different approach to confronting the persecution of Bahais in Iran. While it usually is quick to come to their defense, he said, for some reason it is reluctant to even acknowledge that the persecuted people are Christians.

The United States doesn't seem to want to be seen as a Christian nation protecting Christians, Marshall said.

"There seems to be a tendency to go easy on our friends and on people who want to be our friends," he said. "We seem to be more outspoken on Iran and less outspoken about Afghanistan and what goes on there."

Islamic radicalization during the past 10 to 15 years has fueled much of the persecution of Christians throughout the Islamic world. Countries such as Indonesia and Senegal that had relatively tolerant Islamic populations have become more radical, and Christians have found themselves subject to persecution where they hadn't been before.

Marshall dismissed the idea that Muslim radicals have targeted the United States in recent years because of its foreign policy. Instead he says that groups like al-Qaida target Americans because they view the U.S. as Christian.

"How many mosques have been burned or attacked in Egypt?" Marshall asked. "To my knowledge zero, but large numbers of churches [have been].

"In terms of the clashes it's not a clash between two forces; it's Islamists versus the West, and Christians are one of the principle targets."

You can view the panel discussion here.

Related Topics: John Rossomando

• Posted by RJ on March 29, 2013 at 7:59am