He Gets Us is actually a very good ministry. It's not proclaiming Universalism, but mercy. If you see a Transgender with gauges six inches wide, a septum piercing, and spiked hair, your first inclination shouldn't be disgust. You should have mercy on such an individual. True, it's a sin... but remember the Gospel went to Prostitutes and Tax Collectors, so it also goes out to Transgenders and Feminists. As the LORD said in the Psalms, "I desired mercy, not sacrifice." Surely, when you get them into the church, they need to know right standard, and follow sound doctrine. But, even then, you have to guide them with patience, and not with a rod.
Pastors are way too judgmental, or they are way too accepting. Christ walked the narrow road, and was gentle with sinners, but was strict with Pharisees and Sadducees {Evangelicals and Progressives today}. I also think Christ wasn't a prude, in that He drank wine, did cuss once, and wasn't someone limited by a schedule and a heavy work load. So, you have to wrestle with the true Christ, but I'm going to say He Gets Us is true, and that's why it's so lacking with actual support from anywhere. Just like Christ, it was hated by everyone in the contemporary world.
Category: Ministry
On Frustration
[R]esolve to know Christ. Don't be indifferent to Christ. Pray all day, every day, meditate on His Word and commune with Him. No matter what, when you feel depressed, take a walk through a forest or desert--wherever, just like Jesus--and pray. You'll be invigorated. Tell God you're angry with Him, but don't let your heart be bitter, and ask Him for peace and love and to not be angry. Prepare to die for the love of your brother, and hope for his wellbeing and satisfaction more than your own. God will provide what's necessary for your fruit. As He wants love and peace, not style and cunning, developed in your personality. Every anxiety, go to the LORD. No matter how hard, go to Him, make known your true thoughts, and develop the fruits of righteousness. God cares more about that than your success. He'll give you whatever you need for righteousness, but prepare to suffer long for the hope of good and ripe fruit.
Do not worry. Ask God for heavenly treasures. And you will soon be freed from this world's burdens. You won't long for death, nor will you despair, but you'll have hope which is commanded.
Understanding the Language of the Ancients
People didn't really read back then like they do now. Like, everything wasn't precise, but rather worked through contextualized rather than denotative meaning and structure. Like, there'd be no people telling one another to define what a word means, and then sticking to that definition. People understood things through their relation.
A good example is Socrates talking to Euthyphro. Like, a lot of people misinterpret it, saying that Socrates is looking for a precise definition, when in fact, Socrates is not questioning his definition, but the ethical dilemma of testifying against your father, and thinking such a thing is Pious. The fact is, Piety is already understood by the audience--just like the notion of Good in Phaedo--and it's not what's being defined, but rather the impiety of thinking you have to destroy your father for nothing.
Socrates was not a Nihilist, and we tend to actually ascribe the methods of the Sophists when trying to understand the Greeks. And so with everything else. A lexicon in these days would be so rare, and it would only be understood in the most loose ways. Not something defined so precisely it becomes useless.
This is found in all strains of Philosophical understanding, from Lao Tsu and Confucius, to the Founding Fathers, to even men like Christ and Plato. The issue was always an assumption of "The Way" not baseless skepticism into it, through rigid empiricism, which is something new.
On Plagiarism in Sermons
Plagiarism is such a difficult subject to navigate. Like both Keats and I can have similar themes about the Fall, but we didn't plagiarize each other. It's just the way Fall is, only a few things can be said about it. Which gets into Biblical Exegesis, there shouldn't be too many variations on the subject, because the Bible has one meaning. So, Matthew Henry, Jay Vernon McGee and myself will have a very similar thought process about what the Bible means, because that's just how meaning is.
Not saying these people [who read verbatim premade sermons] aren't plagiarists, but you have to be careful with defining it, because you can essentially outlaw all speech. Like the book Atticus copyrighted some pretty simple platitudes that happen a lot in text conversations, and surely nobody's plagiarizing Atticus when they find those phrases.
It's not all cut in dry. Simply, human thought is limited, so people will eventually come to similar ideas, even removed from each other by millennia or leagues.
And then you add to that, we comprise billions of bits of information we've found all our lives, to make us find what and how we came to all those ideas, you'd essentially outlaw free speech by proxy of making it all subject to someone's copyright.
What gets copyrighted are specific word patterns and ideas unique to you. Which the point of copyright and trademark is to help people make a living off their own inventions, not to essentially steal it from everyone else. As, the internal combustion engine had hundreds of variations, and what was copyrighted was each unique variation, not the process of internal combustion, which cannot be copyrighted.
On Jesus Being Emblematic
Jesus is not symbolic. He literally died, raised from the dead, and ascended into heaven, where He's seated at the right hand of the Father, in a resurrected body of the New Man.
It seems like [I'm] saying the Bible is symbolic. In a sense, [one] can believe that about the Old Testament, but a matured faith should lead you to the conclusion that it's not just symbolic, but actually physically happened too.
Augustine believed the Old Testament is symbolic. You are saved by Jesus, not by your belief in the Bible's inerrancy, although it helps to believe the Bible's true. But, the more important aspects of the faith, is belief in the Moral Law passed down to us, as that creates the conditions for peace and liberty and joy.
And also, you must testify that Jesus Christ is Come in the Flesh. Not merely a symbol or emblem, but was God's Son manifested in the Flesh, the Divine Word of the Holy Trinity.
On Aliens and Demons
Yes, The Dragon looks like an alien, and is on a Hindu Temple. Aliens are indeed demons. And they are submitted under the authority of Christ. Reality is so much different than what we're told. If I told you the truth, you couldn't believe it, which is why we need to stop preaching Young Earth Creationism. Because the truth is so much different than anything we could imagine.
Lord Jehovah
Lord Jehovah-Jireh, Jesus Christ
I languished on my bed last night
Wondering whether I were in the fold.
I see so many believers, young and very old.
They cling to Bibles, without question
And like a sheep to shepherd drawn
The shepherd guides them and feeds them
And it left me in such wonder and awe.
Am I a goat, who must know the very law?
Or is a Goat one who feeds not the homeless
Or the widow visits or the orphan loves?
Or the prisoner he hates with passion
And the captive he does not seek?
And is it he who does these things, is he actually a sheep?
Or is a sheep a mindless drone, unquestioning about Paul's word?
That faith requires no works at all, and that is the leaven they have learned?
To simply believe, like a sheep, and chew on the cud?
Is a sheep one who does not question, or does not have any love?
They, their brethren, do so very judge
And all that's required is an idle word
"Jesus is LORD" my God
I cannot believe it... for you gave man creativity and a brain.
I think your law is brilliant, and it is extremely sane.
I must ruminate on it all day, the meditation of my heart
For Your law I love, and cherish, let Christ forgive me for being smart.
I do not understand the Christian worldview
Of unquestioned faith, and unparalleled grace
That would make immortal a holy prude.
For, maybe I sin by making my songs
But I think the vision was wrong.
I think it was my fleshly brain
For your kingdom I suffer long.
I sought you on my bed
And thought, "This is my God."
The one who lets me be what I am
And nurtures compassion and love.
The one who has a strong word to say
And condemns all sin in the flesh.
For by providence you make me walk
To what's my soul's true best.
Jesus Christ is the LORD.
[W]e know exactly who wrote [the Bible], when and how. We even have provenance that the Sumerians plagiarized us. Did you ever read Gilgamesh? Seems an awful lot like the writer met Noah. Also fits the timeframe, as the epic would have been written around 2200BC and the documentation of the flood shows in the record that it happened in 2450BC. In Chinese records and the missing 2nd Dynasty of Ur, and a similar gap happens in all world civilizations around that time.
On Biblical Slavery
Slavery in the Bible wasn’t immoral. The immoral thing would be not to have it, as many people are helpless without the right organization. It was a strategy to help keep people fed, so they couldn’t starve and was completely voluntary.
Not to mention they didn’t have heavy machinery or abundant moneys so they needed a way to do industrial scale work and compensate it fairly, and that was their way.
On the Bible
The Bible stories aren't made up. But a prudent man conceals knowledge. You can actually hurt someone's faith by telling them the Bible is literal. Plenty of sound teachers taught the stories were emblematic, as it's the Law of God which prevails and converts the heart.
The issue is we have to engage with a generation that cannot believe in anything beside evolution, unless thunderstruck by God with the truth. We have to increase the scope of God, and decrease the scope of the Bible. Because the Bible's moral law is true, and imperative for human flourishing and survival. And also it's imperative for salvation. We're not reaching people right now, and we must, or all is lost.
B. K. Neifert 