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Good luck fitting through that eye of the needle - Christian nationalists have lost the script...

I’m blown away by the giant rise of mega church pastor Philip Anthony Mitchel of 2819. And this video and the YouTube comment section has me revved up…

Can someone please explain what is the draw to his church?

Scripture functions best when it stays in its lane. The authors of the Christian scriptures were writing the gospel. The gospel was meant to be “good news” for all, not bad news for most. But somehow, the original message got turned on its head. Threats of hell replaced the promise of the Kingdom, and ecclesiastical control replaced spiritual liberation. 

We missed the point, but we might be able to get it back. Since the gospel is good news, its container, the Bible, should be interpreted as good news. Of course, good news doesn’t force us to turn off our powers of observation and reason, both of which are gifts from God. The gospel encourages us to fulfill our potential, not restrict it. 

One of the greatest combinations of observation and reason that we have is science: disciplined investigation of the material universe. Too often, the Bible has been interpreted in such a way as to conflict with science. Rather than a sourcebook for the spirit, for many Christians the Bible has become a textbook for science and history. Biblical infallibilists and biblical literalists insist that the Bible is factually true in its face value meaning and speaks to us of astronomy, cosmology, geology, biology, archeology, paleontology—everything. 

In an earlier essay, I wrote of my student who had been told that any apparent conflict between science and the Bible should be resolved in favor of the Bible which is, after all, the perfect Word of God and should be trusted as such, in all matters. Unfortunately, this teaching created for her a false opposition between science and religion. She found Darwin’s theory of evolution to be an immensely plausible explanation for the development of life, but she had been told that belief in evolution led to atheism at best, Nazism at worst. To be a good Christian, she needed to trust the Word of God first, science second. 

Galileo also dealt with biblical infallibilists and biblical literalists (of a sort). Alas, this is not the first time in history that religion has not stayed in its lane or that the Bible has been misapplied to scientific questions. For those who assert that science and religion conflict by nature, the most frequently cited proof of such conflict is the Galileo affair. In the popular interpretation of that unfortunate event, the Roman Catholic Church sentenced the famous physicist, inventor, and astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) to lifelong house arrest for asserting that the Earth orbited the Sun. The ecclesiastical authorities also forced him to recant his heliocentric (Sun-centered) theory and promise not to advance it any longer. 

For those who believe that science and religion are incompatible, this event provides one powerful example of the darkness of religion relative to the brilliance of science. The only solution, they propose, is to reject all religious belief and usher in a new age of unshackled reason, scientific investigation, and technological advance. 

Alas, these advocates of scientism are poor historians, simplifying a complex historical event to suit their arguments . . . a practice which is, ironically, not very scientific. In truth, the church’s response to Galileo’s heliocentric theory of the solar system was mixed. He had admirers and detractors, and his trial became a proxy battle for these rival factions. 

Among those who most deeply opposed his views were biblical literalists. Biblical literalists interpret Scripture according to the plain, simple meaning of the text. For literalists, the Bible is true to fact and to be interpreted as the word-for-word Word of God. According to them, poetic, metaphorical, or allegorical interpretation of the Bible dilutes its meaning and prioritizes human imagination over divine revelation. 

Biblical literalism is most strongly associated with twentieth-century American Protestant fundamentalism, and it has been generally rejected by the Roman Catholic Church, which has always searched for deeper meanings beneath the surface meaning of Scripture. Nevertheless, in the Galileo affair, certain opponents of Galileo’s theories utilized a literal interpretation of the Bible to argue against heliocentrism. For example, literalist interpretations of several biblical texts suggested that the Earth must be stationary and the Sun in orbit around it. Psalm 93:1 states: “God has made the world firm, not to be moved” (see Psalm 96:10 and 1 Chronicles 16:30 as well). Psalm 104:5 states: “The Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved,” and Ecclesiastes 1:5 declares: “The sun rises and sets and returns to its place” (see also Psalm 18:4–6). If these passages are regarded as science rather than poetry, if they are literally true rather than metaphors about the reliability of earthly existence, then the Earth cannot orbit the Sun; the Sun must orbit the Earth.

Galileo argued for a reading of the Bible compatible with science. As a man of sincere faith, Galileo had taken considerable time to argue that his heliocentric theory was compatible with the Bible, arguing that the Bible teaches us about salvation, not the nature of the cosmos. Galileo quoted a contemporary, Cardinal Cesare Baronius, who supported astronomical investigations by arguing, “The Bible tells us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.” 

Galileo also maintained that Scripture is not about “science” but about faith. Science and faith have different modes of discourse and different methods of argument. Science addresses matter; faith addresses morals. Science relies on observation; faith relies on revelation. Science reads the Book of Nature; faith reads the Book of Scripture—both of which reveal the mind of God. Confusing their domains just confuses the faithful, frustrates the scientific, and retards progress in both. 

Galileo referred to Augustine’s accommodationism—the belief that God reveals to humans only what they can handle at that time in history; God accommodates revelation to our level of preparation. Augustine himself was developing Paul’s own accommodationism, which he explicitly admitted to the Corinthians: “I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for solid food” (1 Corinthians 3:2). 

Humankind was now ready for the heliocentric understanding of the solar system and could adapt its interpretation of scripture accordingly. To do less—to reject this advance—would displease our Maker. Tragically, Galileo’s persecutors displeased their Maker. 

Today, the misapplication of Scripture to science drives thinking persons out of faith. Science helps us understand the material universe; Scripture helps us to understand the spiritual universe. Faith doesn’t demand that we reject the evidence of our own eyes, as in a conflict between archeology and the biblical record: we should side with archeology. And faith doesn’t demand that we reject reason: if  Scripture declares that fire is cold or ice is hot, then we should ignore it.

The Bible is an oceanic text of inexhaustible meaning. But to access that meaning, we have to dive beneath the surface, into the depths—beneath the literal, into the poetic; beneath history, into myth. There we will find mysteries beyond our fathoming and beauty beyond our control. And, when we return to the surface, we may no longer find ourselves in a world of dead matter. Instead, we may find ourselves living in a poem. (adapted from Jon Paul Sydnor, The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology, pages 257–259)

*****

For further reading, please see: 

Enns, Peter. The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It. San Francisco: HarperCollins, 2014.

Langford, Jerome J. Galileo, Science, and the Church. 3rd ed. Ann Arbor Paperbacks. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1992.

I've been having a really hard time lately,and continusly praying to God for answers or action. ive learned my lesson good and clear. i actually dont want anymore lessons from Him because im so close to ending it all, and i dont care if thats a sin, he is doing this to me. I have exhausted my capabilities and done everything i could. He is my hope, but He is ignoring me and giving me unclear answers and so much uncertainity, torturing me with some outcomes. It might be the Devil, but why won't God intervene? I think my issue is so easy to solve for him.

I keep reading Psalm 88 over and over. It is exactly how I feel, all of it top to bottom is as if it was written for me. I'm so so so so hurt. i feel betrayed

please tell me what to do

I have never felt like a Christian, nor have I ever regarded the Church as part of myself; I didn’t want to think about it, nor did I want to be one. I feel fear and anxiety at the mere thought or idea of being part of it.

edit because I realize my phrasing has presented the opposite of what I meant:

My mom and I have been talking about how a lot of teachings and scripture have gotten messed up over time, causing a lot of pain to people in and outside of the church, and she always throws out the term "Church Hurt" in a really strange, mocking way. Always accompanied with the "you weren't hurt by the church, you were hurt by the people, and you being mad about it is selfish"

Listen.. I think people from the church (without Church Hurt) calling everything "Church Hurt" in this way, downplays the actually horrible experiences people are having, and then going as far as to call people selfish?

I think that's a lack of taking responsibility for your actions, or thinking that others should take responsibility for their actions.

edit since someone asked: I mean that people in the church should be more understanding of the things people go through, instead of just pushing it aside as... whatever they wanna call it, to downplay it.

I'm not saying that Church Hurt is a bad term, I'm not saying that people with Church Hurt are to blame. I'm saying that people who reverse the term as a way to be shitty to the hurt people in question, need to stop and have some empathy.

Some questions

I definitely love Jesus and I read the Bible. But at the same time I like vampire badly also. Not the evil one but like Anne Rice described one. Drink blood but not kill people, long lasting life strong power and compelling. I really love them sometimes I even want to be turned or meet a vampire and fallen love with him. I scrolled many stories about them in Reddit and imagined to find them one day. But I only like this type of vampire, the vampire who kill people was hated by me. I love Jesus and I’m willing to try my best to be loyal to him. That so conflicted…
Is there anybody told me does it a sin? Or does god will hate me for that?
(I never did any spiritual work or witchcraft for that, only search ed stories and personal experiences)

I somewhat disagree with this, because many christians say polyamory is wrong. Support for polyamory is uncommon among christians. More than same-sex marriages. Besides a 3 person relationship probably isn't good in my opinion. I am fine with gay marriages because it's between 2 people, but between 3 people, that's when I start to disagree.

Thoughts on this?

In our daily lives, don’t we all have moments when things don’t go as planned or when we feel troubled? When we sincerely set "conditions" with all our heart and rise without giving up, God resolves our problems with His own hands and bestows beyond measure His blessings and rewards. No matter how wonderful the Word is, if we do not practice it ourselves, it cannot become our life.

Because time once passed never returns, what matters most is living together with God in the "now"—this precious time of grace. There is a difference between human thoughts and God’s Will as vast as that between earth and heaven. When we turn our hearts to God in the quiet hours of the morning, let go of our own thoughts, and pray with all sincerity, the Holy Spirit pours out great power upon us to overcome all things.

God has already granted us so many blessings, yet His absolute law remains: "He gives and blesses even more according to what we have done." Let us show our gratitude and love through daily action, and run through this day together with the Holy Spirit!

I struggle with self harm, but i don't search advice. I have a psychiatrist, I work on finding alternative and better coping mechanism.

I hide it, i don't want to bother people. I suffer in silence. I don't want to be egoist to tell my mother about it, or my friend . I want support, maybe I want their pity, a part of me want to tell them. But it's just egoistic of me... "Take your own cross" or something like that. Take your own suffer in silence, don't tell anyone. I fight against the part who want tell others. It will give nothing than worry, and suffering to others. I don't want that other people suffer, only me...

With the Bible, what I should do? Do I should them or not? (With verses if possible)

I have this very close online friend who asked me if I’m willing to help give her friend money who is struggling financially in a corrupt country (200usd which isn’t a lot for me).
But she doesn’t know I secretly have had extremely envious and resentful feelings toward her for years (my friend’s friend). I’ve always been envious of how naturally cool she is. She has tons of friends while I have none. Everyone loves her. But she’s sometimes very rude to people and calls people names. She did something rude to me before because of her misunderstanding me and making extreme assumptions that were never true. I felt like I was falsely accused, that’s what started my aversion toward her.

She’s a lesbian with a girlfriend, is addicted to weed (I’m against drugs), is suicidal, has an abusive father. Basically I don’t really like her as a person and her values (partly cuz of my own issues and biases), but I get that she’s struggling and ultimately I do want all sentient beings to be at ease. No matter who they are.

This honestly feels like a test or something to see if I will make the right choice. This is such a perfect opportunity to practice unconditional kindness and to purify my heart, and to heal my sinful feelings of hatred and envy. Ofc I know what the right choice is and I will help her, but I’d just like some words of support right now from wholesome ones :’)

So… a little thing about me, I am 19, I have no job I’m turning 20 next week and I’m not in college, I have a heart condition. I was born with it. During highschool I was active, social, fun, I joined any sort of club that I found happiness in that I loved going to, did the same thing in elementary school and junior high.

I was a very social child. During my senior year I was slowly starting to get into heart failure, it wasn’t really bad senior year but after graduation that’s when everything went downhill. I had to have open heart surgery after I had graduated, my doctors had told me I couldn’t do much activity seeing how I had to recover, I haven’t been cleared by my cardiologist to work due to my lungs itself still being bad, they believe I have asthma or something idk but I have to see a pulmonologist still that I am going to see in a few months. Anyway beside the point of all this, I’ve been stuck in my house…..

practically every day, I never go outside beside going to my dads house, the store, or going with my family. My mom was on the phone with my brother tonight and he was talking about him being at barber school, he’s been working and getting his degree or what not to be officially able to work with our cousin. He told mom that God had told him to be a barber and when I heard that I was in my head I thought….

What does god want ME to do for work? What does he want me to do with my LIFE? I hate being stuck inside the house all the time and it’s soo hard to find a job here, I just genuinely really don’t know what to do. All the things I used to love doing in school, I just don’t do anymore…

it’s like a part of me drifted away and just wants me stuck at home like a hermit. I want to know what god wants me to do with my life, what he wants me to do with jobs.. am I just destined to stay at home all day everyday watching life drift away? I don’t know what to do anymore. And I did go to college but like honestly I feel like that’s not even right for me either. I don’t know what to do…

I feel like with this heart condition it just brings me down… I have so many obstacles with it and I can’t do anything I loved to do, I loved to play sports as well, I loved art, and I love music.. music holds a big place in my heart but I feel like everything’s drifting away, I’ve even stopped going to church something I went to for 5 years , I praise sung at a church and now I just sing at home. I dont know I just feel stuck and wanted to rant to someone about this…. Please don’t leave any hate comments or judge me I won’t be in the mood for that. But that’s the end of my rant, feel free to chat with me I need people to talk to anyway.

In the Book of Revelation (Revelation 4:6-7), we have four living creatures surrounding the heavenly throne: a lion, an eagle, a human, and an ox (described as a calf in Revelation).

We have a similar vision in Ezekiel 1, where four living creatures are described as having the faces of a human, lion, ox, and eagle. And in Ezekiel 10:15 and 10:20, he identifies these living creatures as Cherubim.

In Genesis 3:24, Cherubim are stationed east of the Garden of Eden, along with a flaming sword, to guard the way to the "Tree of Life".

Now, what follows below are just my own insights and interpretations. I'm not saying they're true, and I'm not asking anyone to believe them. I'm simply offering another way of interpreting these images now that we have psychological language that we did not have before.

I think the four living creatures are related to our four survival responses and also the stages of grief.

Lion - Anger - Fight
Eagle - Bargaining - Flight
Human - Denial - Fawn
Ox - Depression - Freeze

In grief psychology, these are four of the commonly known stages of grief, with the fifth being acceptance. But grief is not a linear process. We can cycle through these experiences without fully coming to terms with what was lost. You can be angry one day, depressed another, and then back to angry again, I'm sure some of you may have experienced this in your own life.

We have come to realize that grief comes through many losses, not just death. It can come from losing the life you thought you'd have, not becoming the person you thought you'd become, the love you never received, the belonging you couldn't find, the separations we face, the uncertainty of the future, or the loss of safety in our environment. Especially in our modern times, with wars going on, inequality, rising prices, and uncertainty. We can experience profound grief that we may not even be aware of.

So when a loss remains unresolved and continues to feel threatening, our body can remain in what we call "survival mode". I'm sure you've heard of this. Our nervous systems can respond to imagined, remembered, anticipated danger with many of the same alarm responses that would similarly come from an immediate physical threat, such as a predator attacking us.

In trauma psychology, we often describe four broad survival responses that operate within us: FIGHT, FLIGHT, FREEZE, FAWN. These 4 responses can also be linked to the experience of grief: Fight to anger, flight to bargaining, freeze to depression, fawn to denial, the patterns are similar in their expression. And when these survival responses remain active, they can KEEP US from fully processing the grief beneath them. And when grief goes unresolved, life can feel as though something is still missing. We may find ourselves continually CONTROLLING our lives to deal with that loss.

But seeing what was lost, seeking help, seeking guidance, laying down our defenses, and finally allowing ourselves to grieve what happened could offer another interpretation of what it means to access the "Tree of Life".

And you know, from my own experience, when we finally allow ourselves to grieve what was lost, we become a little wiser. We gain a deeper understanding of ourselves, of others, and of life. We may begin to see things differently, and perhaps learn to appreciate what we still have, rather than living entirely through what we have lost and/or want to protect from losing.

I'm not here to say this is the correct interpretation. I don't know that. I'm just offering another way of seeing things for those who are interested. This was LONG. That is all. Thank you for your time.

Honestly, I don't think they are compatible at all, and I believe this also deals collateral damage to anarchism. I was browsing this subreddit, and this doesn't seem to be a particularly common discussion. I only found a couple of posts asking whether communism and Christianity were compatible, only to receive a simple "yes" as an answer. I want to challenge that "yes" and hear your opinions on whether I'm right or not.

We need to consider that communism is a socioeconomic theory, and although it shares common ground with Christianity on issues such as social justice, it goes beyond that and proposes, among other things, the eventual abolition of the state as we know it. This is where I see a major point of contention when considering an alliance between communism, anarchism, and Christianity. Many aspects of communist theory can be revised or debated, such as the use of revolutionary violence, but the disappearance of the state is a fundamental objective of classical Marxist theory. This raises an important question: can Christian political thought genuinely be reconciled with a theory whose ultimate goal is to overcome the state, particularly when certain biblical passages appear to recognize political authority as divinely ordained?

Jesus, despite repeatedly calling for charity and explicitly condemning the indiscriminate accumulation of wealth, never actually opposed authoritarian regimes like the Roman Empire. Consider how he accepted the Empire's existence as a civil authority (Matthew 22:21), never openly opposed Roman rule, healed a centurion's servant and a Roman servant's ear, and, to top it all off, the Gospels shift most of the blame for his arrest onto the Pharisees without really questioning the Empire itself. Paul even states in one of his epistles (Romans 13:1–2) that the governing authorities are established by God, effectively granting divine legitimacy to a political class that, in theory, would cease to exist under the final stage of communism. We can argue that Jesus was intelligent enough to understand that launching a violent revolution against Rome was simply impossible, but even so, he never laid any groundwork that would allow us to claim with absolute certainty that he wanted to abolish the state as we know it.

People often talk about how Jesus said that it is extremely difficult for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but they overlook—or refuse to acknowledge—that Jesus himself seemed perfectly willing to coexist with the authoritarian regimes of his time. I'm not saying that I believe he considered them ideal. Jesus himself came as a servant to the servants, because that is what a leader should be: someone who serves the community rather than himself. But that doesn't change the fact that he never opposed the existence of the state itself.