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Mar 22

Broom-Pushing Theology

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Educational Posts, Tools of Tyranny

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By John Immel

Here is what I mean by this: follow the metaphor.

You get out of high school and take a JOB at a local factory, or a grocery store, or restaurant. The first day on the JOB, your boss beckons with a finger as he walks towards a large empty floor. He hands you a broom and says: “You got to start somewhere.” After the first hour, you are a master. After the first month, you are desperate to volunteer for any other JOB you can find.

We’ve all been there. I started my working life hauling trash for 5 bucks an hour and all I could eat. I started there for the same reason everybody else starts the world of work–using muscle and brawn; I didn’t have skills much past the very basic:  a pulse body temperature… and if I was really good, I showed up… AWAKE.

This is how we acquired employable ability.… Read the rest

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Mar 12

Spiritual Roofie

Categories:

Collective Conformity, Tools of Tyranny

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By John Immel

“We are strongest when we are connected to others. Why do we run from this reality? Could it be that in our pride we don’t like the idea of exposing our weaknesses to others?”

This is a Spiritual Roofie.

“Well, you know that Iron sharpens Iron. You need to have more friends that will hold you accountable. You need to come be a part of our group.”

This is a Spiritual Roofie.

“…But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We need each other everyday to offer unbelief-splitting encouragement to love God through the cross and only at the cross. If God loves you, my desire is to love you the same.  We should get together.”

This is a Spiritual Roofie.

As are comments like “Confess your faults, that you may be healed…”  “They met from house to house….… Read the rest

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Jan 04

From Whence the Destroyers Cometh

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Tools of Tyranny

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By John Immel

Another story of carnage, of oppression, of injustice comes to our attention and we wonder why?

From where does this come? What is the source?

“It is our nature,” say some.

“It is in our nurture,” say others.

So we build elaborate doctrines to elevate men to arbitrate good and right and truth:  these men will beat back the evil and defend us from the carnage. Only to find that those we follow have done worse, in the name of the people, in the name of good, in the name of God.

We wail at our dissolution. We weep at the injustice. We moan at our plight. “See,” we say, “We are doomed. Not even the best amongst us can prevail. Don’t judge, for you can succumb to the same nature. Don’t condemn because you haven’t walked in the shoes that nurtured the evil.”

But it never occurs to us that we are lost, because each INDIVIDUAL refuses to FIND.… Read the rest

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Jul 16

I Will Give You … Covering

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Tools of Tyranny

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By John Immel

Come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you…covering.

As of today, I have decided that I want be all y’alls covering. That is right… today is the day. I am officially, in all my self-appointed glory, the effective “covering” for everybody.

I’m a leader. I’m spiritual. I figure hey… I can do this. I can be a covering.

What does that mean? Well, not sure exactly. It seems that the content of covering is dependent on what the given church sells… oops… emphasizes. And since I want to be all things to all men, my spiritual pedigree will remain open. Don’t want to offend anyone after all. I am a universal covering.

(Not to be confused with our resident Universalist.)

>snicker<

If those desiring covering are Reformation Theology types–like Sovereign Grace Ministries–then the “covering” is really called “oversight” and the content my “oversight” will be an  assurance that you will have right believing.… Read the rest

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Jul 03

Speaking of Church Polity

Categories:

Educational Posts, Tools of Tyranny

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Anytime we speak of church polity, we are talking about government. There is nothing specifically magical or pure in this government just because it is the Church. So often the conversation about the who, what, when, and where, and how of Ecclesiology gets lost in an endless pursuit of doctrinal precision. But the foundation of the conversation is absolute: we are talking about who has the right to organize, and dictate, and distribute and authenticate.

Let us never lose site of what Government really is:

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”  George Washington

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