[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”June 2023 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Charles Krauthammer (1950 – June, 2018)

“I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking.”

A word needed on all college/university campuses! Charles Krauthammer died five years ago, shortly after writing the above. His wise and perceptive commentaries about politics, American life and so much more are needed today more than ever. What would he be saying about the state of politics in America over the past five years? How helpful he would be! Recommended: Krauthammer’s final book, The Point of It All (2018)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Not Exactly Your “Chamber of Commerce” Welcome to Our Community!

We recently had some property titles recorded in California. The fee was fair enough. But a $75 “SB2” fee was added to each, effectively quadrupling the cost. What is “SB2”? It’s a law passed in California in 2017 to “increase the supply of affordable housing” in California.

It’s hard to see any tangible results. There may be some somewhere, while “tangible non-results” are observable all over the place. This fee becomes just another cost joining other massive costs and expenditures to provide for the homeless, the results being often hard to notice or counter-productive.

Take for example Senate Bill 1380, enacted in 2016. It requires all housing programs using public funds to practice the “housing first” model. What’s that? No one is required to be clean and sober or to participate in programs or services of any kind as a condition to receiving housing.

Many housed under SB 1380 have poor skills in taking care of what they use which isn’t theirs. Those with substance abuse or similar issues will damage buildings and inflict chaos on other residents. Security is weak, primarily because irresponsible residents let others in, say, for drug use or prostitution.

[SB 1380] assumes that four walls and a ceiling will have a miraculous ability to cure the problems that caused that person to be on the street in the first place. In reality, the law enables addicts to inflict harm on themselves and others, at taxpayer expense…

We need housing for residents who won’t destroy it, quality mental health hospitals and residential rehab facilities for people who need care, shelters for people in crisis and the return of the city streets and sidewalks to their intended purpose…

Instead, California is spending $20 billion and counting on the same failed policies, as homelessness experts and non-profit executives draw lavish salaries and big contracts, all funded by taxpayers, to continue the policies that are destroying what once were livable cities.

– Susan Shelley, “Skid Row and the Failure of the ‘housing first’ approach”, Press Telegram, April 13, 2023

We see encampments along rivers, under bridges, beside bike trails, and on sidewalks. We encounter homeless people who may be passive or aggressive walking the streets, hungry or seeking a drink or a fix. We see litter and filth and drug abuse paraphernalia. An expensive and potentially excellent “Metro” rail system is overtaken by homeless people, leading to its abandonment by commuters and others and a big drop-off in revenue. We tax and spend and wonder why the homeless population keeps growing where the climate is so nice. Some experts say the problem is insoluble.

The Bible reminds us (1) these are valuable humans made in the image of God, and (2) we are prone to do evil and harm to ourselves and others, especially absent inculcation of values and meaningful socialization. The Bible instructs us to help the needy with generosity and wisdom, not gullibility and naiveté.

Appropriate non-profit agencies work hard to accomplish what they can with the resources they have. Government leaders are entrusted by citizens with the duty to resolve the issues as much as humanly possible and they always owe the taxpayers careful administration of funds and accountability. Both non-profits and government at all levels must strive to succeed through an effective and efficient use of resources.

Cynicism is understandable but not an excuse to do nothing.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

“The Lord’s Prayer” Petition 4 –
Praying for Our “Daily Bread”

[I had wanted to use a recent “Dennis the Menace” cartoon here. Dennis comes out of church and asks the minister if the “daily bread” mentioned in the sermon included jelly and peanut butter! Alas, I thought the $100 royalty a bit too steep.]

“Give us this day our daily bread.”

– Jesus (Matthew 6:11 KJV)

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Chef Bruno Serato of the Anaheim White House*, one of the ten best restaurants in Orange County, CA, feeds 5,000 needy children daily.
(*My wife, family and I will dine at “The Chef’s Table” in June for our “57th”)

I met Chef Serato eleven years ago at Cypress College in Orange County. We were there to record comments for an upcoming celebration. He would be named Cypress College Person of the Year for his daily meals for children. He also was nominated for national recognition on CNN. In spite of his busy daily world, he took time to stand and chat with me in the parking lot.

I think of him when I think of the petition in The Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” Notice it is a prayer for “us,” not “me.” It asks God to meet the daily sustenance needs for others as well as ourselves. The Lord’s Prayer is not a “gimme” prayer. Chef Serato’s generosity is one big way God answers that prayer for so many.

When we pray for God to give us “Our Daily Bread” we are…

1) Showing the right priorities for “good praying.”
Having first and properly prayed about God’s honor, will and kingdom we now, secondly, turn our attention to ourselves and our needs. In the Lord’s prayer we pray for (1) our physical needs (for bread), (2) our relational needs (for forgiveness) and (3) our moral needs (for help facing temptations).

2) Confessing God as the source of the food that sustains us.
Psalm 104 is my favorite psalm. I like it because it is a wonderful creation psalm. In it we see that God is the first link of the food chain! Notice:

You cause the grass to grow for the livestock
and plants for man to cultivate,
that he may bring forth food from the earth
and wine to gladden the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine
and bread to strengthen man’s heart. (Psalm 104:14-15 ESV)

3) Committing ourselves to pray for and minister to the needs of others, not just ourselves.
“Give US this day OUR daily bread.” God said through Isaiah the prophet,
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen…to share your food with the hungry?” (Isaiah 58:6-7)

God calls us to be compassionate and eager to share with those in need. We should not be gullible, but we should be generous.

4) Learning to live one day at a time and to do God’s will.
“Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ …Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow…” – Jesus (Matthew 6:32-34)
God met the nourishment needs of the Israelites as they wandered in the wilderness by giving them daily “manna” from heaven. But the people had to put out the effort to gather it and prepare it. No effort, no dinner! And on the Sabbath day no “manna” came from heaven. They must gather enough for two days the day before. They must rest on the Sabbath. See Exodus 16.

We need to learn the lesson of a weekly day of rest. Do we really believe God can supply our needs when we lay aside the rushing demands of the other six days and give God our worship and ourselves a break one day each week?

5) Praying for and thanking God for all steps in the process of putting bread on our tables.
• The workers, often migrants, who do the difficult work in the fields and orchards from which much of our daily provisions comes.
• Good government, that protects the distribution process and ensures fairness for all concerned, and that sets forth economic policies that encourage productivity and keep prices reasonable.
• Thriving wholesale and retail markets that earn profits and provide income while allowing us to afford and purchase what we need.

Along the lines of my points, I recommend reading Martin Luther’s words on this petition (and the whole prayer) as found in his Second Catechism.

6) Remembering also Jesus’ word that, while we live by bread, we do not live by bread alone!
We also live by “every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). The teachings of Scripture, especially the words of Jesus, feed our spirits and guide us, just as much as the bread God supplies feeds our bodies and sustains us.

Whenever you pray this petition, trust God and thank God for supplying our physical necessities. Pray he will open up opportunities for you to share your abundance with others in need.

Then thank God for his Word, which turns our minds toward our spiritual necessities without ignoring our bodily needs, and teaches us how God supplies both of them through Jesus Christ our Lord.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Bible Insight – The Rapture of the Church
Definitions, a Disclosure & Observation,
Arguments & Affirmations
By Donald Shoemaker (May, 2023)

Definitions:

“Rapture” – “Rapture” is taken from a word in the Latin Bible describing the “catching away” of the Church (followers of Jesus living or raised from the dead at the time of Jesus’ second coming). See 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

“The Great Tribulation” – a time (variously understood as 3½ or 7 years) of the presence of the Antichrist who engages in unprecedented persecution and martyrdom of the followers of Jesus. It is also the time of God’s increasing judgments against evil. It concludes with the return of Jesus and his defeat of the Antichrist. See chapters 6-19 in The Book of Revelation.

“Pretribulation Rapture” – God will remove the Church from the world before the Great Tribulation begins. Those who become followers of Jesus after this rapture will be persecuted by the Antichrist.

“Posttribulation Rapture” – the Church will be on earth throughout the Great Tribulation and will experience severe persecution at the hand of the Antichrist. God will rapture the Church at the end of the Great Tribulation so it may be united with Jesus at the time of his glorious return.

There are other minor views about the nature and timing of the Rapture which are not within the scope of this study.

Disclosure:

Years of reflection plus recent in-depth study on the subject of the Rapture of the Church as it relates to the Second Coming of Christ have led me to conclude that the Rapture is an aspect of the singular comprehensive event we call “the Second Coming.” In other words, I no longer hold to a separate “Pretribulation Rapture of the Church,” as I did for many years.

Observation: The Rapture issue is not “a hill to die on.”

I know of no scholar who defended the pretribulation rapture of the Church more strongly than John F. Walvoord, past president of Dallas Theological Seminary. Still, he recognized (correctly so, in my opinion) that no position on the Rapture is decisively taught in Scripture. “The conclusions reached necessarily are based on the total weight of the supporting evidence and the extent to which each solves its problems” (The Blessed Hope and The Tribulation, p. 144).

This being the case, we shouldn’t break fellowship with others over the various viewpoints on the Rapture and how they relate to Jesus’ Return in Glory or cement this or that view into our doctrinal statements.

Argument: At the Rapture, Jesus comes in the air for the saints. At the Revelation, Jesus comes to the earth with the saints.

But are these really two different events? Both may be aspects of the same overall event. Believers will be raptured “to meet” the Lord in the air. Then what? Go to heaven with Jesus or down to earth with Jesus? 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the relevant text, doesn’t say whether Jesus will turn around or the saints will turn around. We can’t dogmatize when the text doesn’t speak.

It is possible that the rapture motif reflects how a representative group would go forth to meet a dignitary and then escort him back to their city. The same verbal form “to meet” is used in Acts 28:15. When Paul arrived in Italy, some believers came out from Rome “to meet” him and then escort him to Rome. Consider also the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). “At midnight the cry rang out, ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’” (25:6 NIV)

Argument: At the Rapture before the Tribulation, Jesus will come “like a thief in the night” (sometimes called a “secret” coming). In contrast, at the Revelation at the end of the Tribulation, Jesus will come openly and visibly in power and glory.

This distinction misunderstands the “thief” metaphor. The point is not the element of secrecy but the element of surprise. Devotees of Jesus (“children of the day”) will not be surprised when he returns, for they are prepared. Those who are “in darkness” will be surprised, for they are not prepared.
“But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:4 NIV (read verses 1-11)

If the return of Jesus is “like a thief” to me, that’s my fault!

Argument: The Rapture could happen at any moment, without signs and without warning. The Second Coming, by contrast, is preceded by many signs.

Matthew 24:42 is one scripture used to support this notion of a rapture that comes without signs or warnings. Jesus said, “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” Jesus also told the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). Five were unprepared and missed out on the wedding banquet, but the five who were prepared were admitted to the banquet. Jesus concluded, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”

However the reality is that such calls for watchfulness are, in context, intended to prepare people for the posttribulation Second Coming, not a rapture seven years earlier (“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory”
– Matthew 24:30). Indeed, Jesus alerts his followers to look for signs of this “imminent” event and to be prepared, because its exact timing is unknown.

Argument: The Antichrist will not appear until the “Restrainer” is removed (2 Thessalonians 2:5-8). This “Restrainer” is either the Holy Spirit who indwells the Church or the Church itself. Either way, the Church must be removed before the Antichrist can be revealed.

The Apostle Paul’s letter doesn’t tell us who this restrainer is. Paul did tell the Christians in Thessalonica during a prior visit. We have to be content with this lack of information and not try to interpret words that aren’t there. We can have our opinions, but hold them lightly. There is no basis for either speculation or dogmatism on this point.

The key point taught here is the future is in God’s hands. The Antichrist is revealed “at the proper time” when the restraint holding him back is lifted. Not one minute sooner. And he won’t last long. But in between, look out!

Argument: The second coming of Jesus is called “The Blessed Hope” (Titus 2:13). But it’s hardly a “blessed hope” if people know they must first go through the Great Tribulation before Jesus returns.

Christians who have gone through severe persecutions would never think this way. Knowing deliverance will surely happen is a “blessed hope” indeed. Certainly, the exiled Jews were encouraged in the midst of their travail by “the blessed hope,” if you please, of returning to their land (Jeremiah 29:10-14).

Additionally, it’s important to see that our “Blessed Hope” of Jesus’ return is described in Titus 2:13 as the “appearing [epipháneian] of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” These words describe Jesus’ “epiphany,” his posttribulation Revelation in glory, not some rapture years earlier.

Affirmation: The only text in the Bible that explicitly mentions Jesus’ second coming refers to his Return in Glory.

“Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” – Hebrews 9:28

This “second” coming which brings “salvation to those who are waiting for him” would have to be a reference to the pretribulation rapture if that view were correct. Yet, as reflected in many teachings and doctrinal statements and, I believe, in the New Testament too, the true “second” coming of Jesus is his revelation in glory accompanied by his mighty angels (Mark 8:38 and many other scriptures), not Jesus’ appearance at an earlier “rapture event.” Consider Hebrews 10:27 and 12:26 and the next affirmation.

Affirmation: The Revelation of Jesus in glory, not a rapture seven years earlier, will bring his Church relief from persecution.

“He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” – 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7

If there were a rapture prior to the Great Tribulation, this event would surely bring an end to the persecution and affliction of the Church. But if this will be so, why doesn’t Paul mention it? Instead, he clearly regards Jesus’ Revelation [apokalúpsis – “apocalypse”] “in blazing fire with his powerful angels” as the event that will bring the Church relief from those who are troubling it.

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.
– “The Church’s One Foundation” by Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1864)

Affirmation: I believe this about Jesus –

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate,
he suffered death and was buried,
and rose again on the third day…
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
– The Nicene Creed (325 AD)

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“Veni, Domine Jesu”
“¡Ven, Señor Jesús!”
“Come, Lord Jesus!”
– Revelation 22:20

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Last Judgment fresco (1534-41)
by Michelangelo fills the Sistine Chapel’s
altar wall (resurrection is depicted in the lower left)

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Religious Liberty Vigilance –
“Nibble, Nibble, Nibble, Nibble” – How the Federal Government is Eroding Religious Liberty

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
– 1st Amendment

• Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ended a two-decade long arrangement with a community of Franciscan priests that provided pastoral care services to hospitalized service members. Instead, a secular firm will provide services, but they won’t be comparable. Hospitalized military personnel who are Catholic will no longer have ready access to church sacraments. This new action stands in violation of a tradition of government-supported religious services to those in the military that is almost as old as our nation.

• Rules are being rescinded that allow religious organizations to participate in federally-funded programs without relinquishing their faith commitments.

• The Department of Education seeks to rescind a “Religious Liberty” rule that protects campus organizations from negative actions by administrators who disapprove of their beliefs. Present rules prohibit administrations from discriminating against student groups because of their religious beliefs.

• The definition of “sex discrimination” is being broadened to include sexual identity and speech or conduct subjectively felt to be discriminatory. If it is found that the speech or conduct “more likely than not” will give offense, disciplinary action could be taken against a faculty member or student.

• Religiously-based hospitals or doctors with religious convictions may be coerced into providing medical procedures (such as abortion services or gender-transition services) in spite of their deep religious objections to such services.

And the list grows. The current administration is not a friend of the “free exercise of religion” clause in the First Amendment.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1672774688935{background-color: #c6956f !important;border-radius: 5px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Latino Catholic Trends in America

St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Long Beach is one interesting parish to visit. It is old and ornate yet welcoming. It has six Masses on Sundays—three in Spanish. When you attend a Mass in Spanish you become part of a packed and lively congregation with lots of children present. I don’t understand much of what is said. I have my i-Pad open to the Nicene Creed in Spanish but can’t keep up with the recitation speed. Taco carts are aplenty out front after Mass.

With this memory, I was rather surprised at a report in Catholic World News (April 13) about the drop-off in the number of Latinos in the U.S. who identify as Catholic. In twelve years their number has plummeted from 67% to 43% of the Latino population (down to 30% among Latinos age 18-29). Have many become Protestant? No. That number has ticked up only 3 points to 15%.

Although Catholics still easily outnumber Protestants among Latinos, the Latino Protestants are much more likely to attend weekly worship (53% versus 22%).

Certainly the pandemic has affected church attendance. Still overall, these statistics are another sad sign of the decline of Christian impact in America.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 56 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2023 Donald P. Shoemaker

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APPENDIX: Recent Court Decisions and the
Non-Establishment [of Religion] Principle
By Eugene Volokh (April 22, 2023)

Eugene Volokh is the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA.
[BOLD mine—DS]

…Some have suggested that the problem with Dobbs [the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade] is that it lets states implement one particular, religious understanding of when life begins, or more precisely of when the right to life vests. But of course, any legal system must adopt some rule on this subject. The line could be drawn at conception, at the end of the first trimester, at viability, at the end of the second trimester, at birth, or after birth—ancient Romans, for instance, allowed exposing unwanted children to leave them to die.[1] All these decisions are based on unproven and unprovable views, whether moral, spiritual, or otherwise.

Likewise for animal rights. In my own state of California, it’s a crime to sell horse meat for human consumption.[2] That’s based on a nonrational moral or spiritual judgment: One argument for a similar proposal in Illinois, for instance, described eating horse meat as “morally perverse,” “a perversion of the human-animal bond.”[3] And it’s a judgment that controls what people can put into their own bodies. Yet it’s precisely the sort of judgment that democracies generally leave to the political process. The same is true for many other decisions about which animals the law should protect, and against what forms of treatment.

And of course, many voters’ and legislators’ moral judgments turn on their religious beliefs. Consider the draft, or the decision whether to start a war (or to stop one). Some people oppose all war for religious reasons. Some oppose unjust war for religious reasons.[4] Some support some wars for religious reasons. (“As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.”[5])

Most of the coercive laws that we hotly debate involve forcing a majority’s views on the minority. That is true, as noted above, of laws protecting endangered species, antislavery laws, antidiscrimination laws, animal cruelty laws, environmental laws, intellectual property laws—or for that matter, bans on infanticide, child sexual abuse, or more generally, theft, sexual assault, or murder. Some of these laws may be sound on the merits and others unsound. But the fact that they force one group’s views on another doesn’t make them violations of the Establishment Clause, regardless of the source of the first group’s views.

Religious people are as entitled as nonreligious people to implement into law their views about right and wrong, even if those views are matters not of logic or empirical evidence but of fundamentally moral and spiritual (or, to religious people, religious) judgment. And of course, the Supreme Court has repeatedly reaffirmed this, for instance in Harris v. McRae,[6] a case involving bans on abortion funding.[7]

To be sure, Justices shouldn’t decide cases purely based on their theological beliefs, or skew their readings of, say, text or original meaning or tradition based on what their own religious beliefs (or their own secular philosophical beliefs) command. But there’s no Establishment Clause barrier to their returning disputes to the political process, where voters and legislators can make decisions based on their own moral judgment, including religiously informed moral judgment. And of course, if Justices are supposed to evaluate rights questions with an eye towards what they think is the proper standard of human dignity or liberty or equality, then religious Justices must be as free to consider their own religiously informed moral thoughts as much as, say, Kantian or Rawlsian or Dworkinian Justices are free to consider their own philosophically informed moral thoughts.

Naturally, this doesn’t preclude arguments that the Constitution does secure a right to abortion, or a broader individual right to control one’s own body (whether that means a right to get an abortion or a right not to have the body used to kill enemy soldiers), entirely apart from whether restrictions on such rights are motivated by religion. My point is simply that, whenever this question turns on matters of morality, religious people are as entitled as secular people to use their own morality to decide them, even when that morality is religiously infused.

[1]. See, e.g., Judith Evans Grubbs, Infant Exposure and Infanticide, in The Oxford Handbook of Childhood and Education in the Classical World 83, 85 (Judith Evans Grubbs, Tim Parkin & Roslynne Bell eds., 2013). Indeed, ancient Roman law allowed the eldest male in the family to kill any family member, even an adult, though the power may have been more formal than real. See, e.g., Barry Nicholas, An Introduction to Roman Law 65–67 (1975).
[2]. Cal. Penal Code § 598d (West 2022).
[3]. Horse Lovers Tell Illinois Lawmakers: Stop Turning Mr. Ed into Mr. Edible, Ill. Times: Neighsayers (Nov. 6, 2003), https://www.illinoistimes.com/springfield/neighsayers/Content?oid=11436462 [https://perma.cc/8LPF-FUGH].
[4]. See Gillette v. United States, 401 U.S. 437, 441 (1971).
[5]. Julia Ward Howe, The Battle Hymn of the Republic, in The New Oxford Book of War Poetry 140 (Jon Stallworthy ed., 2014).
[6]. 448 U.S. 297, 319 (1980).
[7]. See also Bob Jones Univ. v. United States, 461 U.S. 574, 604 n.30 (1983); McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 442 (1961).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”April-May 2023 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]EASTER’S MESSAGE – “Christ died for our sins… he was buried…he was raised on the third day.”
(1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

The Big Question for Easter—Why is this event so vital?

The Gospel proclaims Jesus’ resurrection as FACT. We embrace it by FAITH. If there is no FACT behind the FAITH, then our faith is of no value, whether it’s faith in our financial institutions or in Jesus as our Risen Lord.

So, what if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead? (1 Corinthians 15:12-19)

• The Gospel message that proclaims it is USELESS (verse 14)
• The apostles (foundation of our faith) are FALSE WITNESSES (verse 15)
• Our faith is USELESS and FUTILE—it just won’t work (verses 14 & 17)
• We remain in our SINS (verse 17)
• There is NO HOPE beyond the grave (verse 18)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

“The Lord’s Prayer” Petitions 2 & 3 –
Praying for the Coming of God’s Kingdom and the Doing of God’s Will

“The Sermon on the Mount”
by Sylvia Consadori (1971)

“Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

– Jesus (Matthew 6:10 KJV)

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“Let Your Glory Fall” by David Ruis (1994)

Ruler of the nations the world has yet to see
The full release of Your promise
The church in victory
Turn to us Lord and touch us
Make us strong in Your might
Overcome our weakness
That we could stand up and fight

Let Your glory fall in this room
Let it go forth from here to the nations
Let Your fragrance rest in the place
As we gather to seek Your face

Let Your kingdom come
Let Your will be done
Let us see on earth
The glory of Your Son

From the moment I first heard and sang this praise chorus at my church it became one of my favorites. It comes to mind now as I share thoughts on the second and third petitions of The Lord’s Prayer.

It is totally legitimate to teach the 2nd and 3rd Petitions separately. I have chosen to combine them because I think it likely that “Your will* be done…” is appositional. That is, it is a deeper unfolding of “Your Kingdom come.”

*God’s “will” in this petition is his desired moral will rather than his decreed will.

When God’s will is done on earth as it is in Heaven,
then we can truly say “God’s Kingdom has come to earth!”

The “Now” of the Kingdom of God as compared to “Then” (its future reality) is much debated by Christians (as it should be). At the two extremes are those who believe the Kingdom is altogether future, dramatically coming when Jesus returns and others who believe the Kingdom will be established before Jesus returns, ready and waiting for him.

Between these two extremes are many who see a present aspect to the kingdom (now being realized, in which devout Christians have vital roles to play). If this thinking goes too far, critics call it “over-realized eschatology,” but don’t let that phrase bother you. A sad example of this is the teaching that total healing of the body is available to all who have sufficient faith.

We who are between the two extremes believe firmly in the visible, personal Second Coming of Jesus, when the Kingdom of God is fully, decisively established on earth (Hebrews 9:28; Revelation 1:7, 19:11-16).

We also believe in the present form of the Kingdom of God. It’s “behind the scenes” and we are working on it. Yet we await the future form of the Kingdom. It will definitely NOT be “behind the scenes” and it will come without our effort.

These questions come up as we offer the two petitions to God in prayer:
• What is the present form of God’s Kingdom like? Where do we see it?
• What will the future form of God’s Kingdom be like?
• How should we pray for each of these?

The Present Kingdom

• It was inaugurated during Jesus’ earthly ministry as he encountered and defeated the forces of evil (Matthew 12:28). After his resurrection Jesus ascended to Heaven and was enthroned as king (Acts 2:32-36).
• It is seen in how the work of Christ is applied to those who become his followers. God has enabled them to “share in the kingdom of light.” They have been “rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought…into the kingdom of the Son he loves [Jesus].” They now have “redemption, the forgiveness of sin” (see Colossians 1:11-13).

• It should be seen in the life and practices of churches that claim loyalty to Jesus and the Scriptures. “The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Churches must live out this verse.

Christians in the church at Rome were judging and belittling one another over whether one may eat this or that food or drink this or that drink. Paul says, “Stop judging. Stop belittling. You are wasting your time and ruining the church’s testimony when you fuss over ‘food and drink’ –issues that have nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. Instead focus on what is the essence of the Kingdom: righteousness, peace, joy.”

To put it practically, people should be able to see the kingdom qualities of righteousness and peace and joy at work in a church (a microcosm of the kingdom), not judgmental preaching over what people eat or drink. My 55 years of experience in the life of churches show me that we still have a ways to go, although ‘food and drink’ issues aren’t as central to the life of many churches as they once were.

When you pray The Lord’s Prayer, have in mind the blessings of present participation in God’s Kingdom and give thanks for them.

Pray that our churches live out righteousness and peace and joy, and for the extension of God’s Kingdom through evangelism throughout the world.

Pray for our world—for God to intervene against aggressive war, oppression, injustice, persecution, disrespect for human life and other social evils.
Pray for the impact of churches as forces for good in a hurting world. But don’t be naïve to think that the church will ever create a righteous world. *

*Criticism is directed today against “Christian Nationalism” – the term used by critics who react to those who seem to be militant and who see America as a “Christian Nation” that ought to be ruled by the Law of God. There’s an element of truth to this concern. But it’s also a great fundraising accusation by organizations critical of Christian activism.

The Future Kingdom

The Old Testament prophets made reference many times to what we might call “The Golden Age” of God’s rule. The New Testament sees this age as the result of the Second Coming of Jesus. Here’s how Isaiah described it –

The law will go out from Zion,
the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He will judge between the nations
and will settle disputes for many peoples.
They will beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore. (Isaiah 2:3-4)

The “Golden Age,” then, is a time for the universal knowledge of the will of God and judgments based on that will.

It is also a time of universal peace. The United Nations building in New York has a “swords into plowshares” sculpture outside it. The best we can hope for prior to Jesus’ earthly reign is “proximate peace.” It should be pursued with vigor but also with realism about humanity’s willful quest for power and the spoils of conquest. This is not the hour to dispense with the “swords and spears.” It is the time to “pray and keep the (gun)powder dry.”

So when we pray The Lord’s Prayer with the future Kingdom in mind, we rightfully mourn the sufferings brought on by sinfulness in this present age—personal sin and corporate (systemic) sin. We rightfully look beyond all we can do about it to the day when God will finish the task.

We pray for God to vindicate the martyrs “who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?” (Revelation 6:9-10). Join in their prayer.

We pray for those who mistreat us as we lay aside retaliation and vengeance. “‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” God will make things right in the coming Great Day. See Luke 6:27-31 and Romans 12:17-21.

We pray the prayer of the church: “Maranatha. Come, O Lord” (1 Cor. 16:22).

The Kingdom of God in Song

“Hosanna” by Brooke Ligertwood –Our church recently sang this song. It calls for our devotion to God’s present Kingdom cause. It also looks forward to the revealing of God’s Kingdom: “I see the King of glory coming on the clouds with fire…”

I see the King of Glory, coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see His love and mercy washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

Hosanna, Hosanna. Hosanna in the Highest

I see a generation rising up to take their place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a near revival stirring as we pray and seek
We’re on our knees, we’re on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause
As I walk from Earth into eternity

Other Songs on the Kingdom of God

“I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord”
“Lead On, O King Eternal”
“Rise Up, O Saints of God!”
“Rise Up, O Men of God!”
“The Kingdom of God is Justice and Joy”
“We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations”
“A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”
“Christ Is Coming! Let Creation Bid Her Groans and Sorrows Cease”
“Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above”
“Is He Worthy?” (“He has made us a kingdom…”) – Chris Tomlin

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Mark Wahlberg

A Lenten Prayer for the Church

Lord, in ancient Israel you gave your promise to King Solomon:
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

Your church needs reformation and revival, Lord! Your church needs your forgiveness and mercy.

With a scornful wonder we see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder, by heresies distressed. *

Forgive us whenever we become carefree with our beliefs and issues of Christian morality. May we uphold your holy name and your revealed doctrines. May we obey your commandments to honor parenthood, the value of human life, the sanctity of marriage, our neighbor’s right to what they own, and the importance of speaking the truth.

Convict us and guide us to keep the fast that the Lord has chosen:
To loose the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free.
To share our food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
When we see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from our own flesh and blood? **

Give your people a heart of love for the communities where we live. Forgive us when we don’t seek the well being of our communities as you commanded us to do. May we take our citizenship and our precious rights seriously. May your churches be bright lights lifted high.

Purify your church, Lord. May we be filled with your Holy Spirit, worshiping you eagerly from our hearts. Cleanse your church by the washing of water through your Word, until that blessed day when you present your church to yourself as a radiant, holy, glorified body.

Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

* From “The Church’s One Foundation”
** Read Isaiah 58:6-7

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Religious Liberty Vigilance – Governor’s COVID Lockdown Is Finally Over!

“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from inter meddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.”

– Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808

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March 19 – 3rd Anniversary of California’s COVID Lock-down

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued his heavy-handed statewide “Stay At Home” order.

Business activities were divided into “Essential” and “Non-Essential.” (Liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries were “Essential”. Churches were “Non-Essential.”)
No government should have the right to make that kind of determination.

In conflict with his ban, Gov. Newsom enjoyed dining with lobbyists and friends at the exclusive French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley (wine country)—appropriately named because the restaurant’s prices will take you to the cleaners.

The governor had the power to issue “no bid” contracts, which he did by the hundreds. Such contracts would be forbidden in more ordinary times.

Outdoor dining was first allowed, then forbidden. A judge would rule that the ban was “not grounded in science, evidence, or logic.”

Constitutional rights such as Freedom of Assembly and Religious Freedom “took it on the jaw” during the lock-down. Among others, Grace Community Church in Sun Valley (John MacArthur, pastor) defied the ban in spite of threats and actions by Los Angeles County. Religious freedom prevailed. The State of California and Los Angeles County paid the church’s legal costs of $800,000.

The lock-down experiences nationwide should give us grave concern about how quickly cherished rights, thought to be guaranteed, can be removed. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]April is Indeed a Taxing Month!
For Preachers and Religious Organizations Too!

Church/State separation and the First Amendment allow for churches and religious organizations to be tax-exempt. Taxing religion would have a chilling effect on its free exercise. (See Walz v. Tax Commission of New York City, 1970.)

Like everyone else, clergy naturally search for ways to avoid paying unnecessary taxes. And religious organizations look for ways to minimize the impact of government on their enterprises. Nothing intrinsically wrong with such searches. But some solutions they choose are less than honorable.

Here are five examples of clergy, churches or religious organizations that cross a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

1. Religious organizations that avoid financial openness by reclassifying themselves as churches

The government recognizes the valuable social role played by non-profit organizations. These organizations are exempt from taxation and donations to them are tax deductible. But in return the government requires these groups to submit IRS Form 990, an ominous form the instructions for which will tax the mind of any reader who peruses them.

Form 990 is available to the public, except for Schedule B which lists major donors. Imagine the harassment that would take place if Schedule B were available, giving the names of donors to every critic!

[Form 990] includes important information about the organization, including
annual revenue, salaries of key employees, names of board members and large contractors, and the amount of money the organization spends on its core mission. Also highlighted are the amounts it spends on administrative and fundraising. This information is valuable to donors wanting to assess the effectiveness of a ministry. [Ministry Watch]
Churches are exempt from Form 990. The assumption is, donors to churches are “close at hand,” able to observe how well they operate or if they operate dishonorably. They do not need the disclosures Form 990 makes possible. (This assumption is mostly correct, in my opinion, but any church where it is not correct thereby gives members good reason to leave it.)

So guess what? Many tax-exempt charities are reclassifying themselves as churches. And this raises big problems in my mind. One is theological—these entities simply are not churches in any biblical sense. For one thing, people don’t enter their organization through baptism and don’t express unity in Christ with one another through frequent partaking of the Eucharist.

A second problem is the lack of disclosure that results, since a Form 990 will not exist and hence there are no contents open for inspection.

Bad practices thrive in darkness. This truism relates not only the individual organization, but to the marketplace in which it operates. Where there is a lack of information, trust goes down and disinformation can flourish. Donors lose confidence in individual organizations and society loses confidence in the value of the entire sector they represent. [Ministry Watch]

A third problem is that the absence of the “sunshine” given by Form 990 increases the influence of critics of religion who always look for ways to increase government scrutiny and, if possble, end tax exemption for religious organizations that hold, in their opinion, views that shouldn’t be tolerated.

[Resource: William Cole Smith, “When Is A Church Not A Church?” Ministry Watch, Dec. 19, 2019]

2. Pastors who don’t pay into Social Security

Many years ago pastors didn’t have to pay into Social Security—this was optional. Those days are long gone. But I guess the word hasn’t spread well, or we’ve turned off our hearing aids rather than having to hear it.

Pastors are required to pay into the Social Security system unless they file Form 4361, which declares they are opposed to government assistance programs like Social Security as a conviction of their faith (not just because they’d rather not pay it or think they’d do better having the money to invest elsewhere).

In Form 4361 the minister certifies to the IRS, “I am conscientiously opposed to, or because of my religious principles I am opposed to, the acceptance (for services I perform as a minister, member of a religious order not under a vow of poverty, or Christian Science practitioner) of any public insurance that makes payments in the event of death, disability, old age, or retirement…” And there is more, including giving notification to one’s ordination body of this conscientious opposition.

Very, very few pastors can claim this exemption in good conscience. Others who file Form 4361 either choose to lie about their convictions or else sign without reading the details and perhaps after getting bad advice, which is a lapse in due diligence.

I have known cases where pastors avoided paying into Social Security and also never got around to making comparable investments for their retirement years. To make matters worse, some lived in church-owned parsonages and therefore had no real property to sell or to live in during retirement years. This is sad and regretful and could have been avoided.

A word to church leaders: Please realize that a pastor is considered “self-employed” for purpose of Social Security and therefore pays “both halves” of Social Security and Medicare taxes. That currently totals 15.3%!
Enlightened congregations will want to offset some of a pastor’s Self-employment (Social Security) tax. Just as they pay half of regular employees’ Social Security taxes (7.65%), they equitably reimburse half of a pastor’s tax.

3. Pastors who don’t pay Social Security (Self-employment) tax on their Housing Allowances

There are real tax rules and then there are tax rules that don’t exist. One of the latter is the notion that the Housing Allowance a pastor receives (or the fair market rental value of a church-supplied parsonage) isn’t subject to Social Security taxes. I’ve talked to pastors who are adamant about this. They are adamantly wrong.
See IRS Publication 517, Social Security and Other Information for Members of the Clergy and Religious Workers, “Self-Employment Tax: Figuring Net Earnings,” #4 of “Amounts included in gross income.” Also page 9 – Exclusion of minister’s housing from Income Tax: “This exclusion applies only for income tax purposes. It doesn’t apply for SE tax purposes.“

4. Pastors who don’t report income from weddings, funerals, and the like

A pastor is pretty much on an “honor system” for reporting earnings from ministries such as weddings or funerals. Usually he is paid in cash. Most speaking engagements at churches are exceptions to this—the minister will probably be paid by check. But unless the compensation received in a year is $600 or more, a church is not required to report it to the IRS and supply the pastor with a #1099 for tax reporting purposes.

Pastors must keep good records and report (on Schedule C) all income for services rendered, whether in cash or not, along with expenses.

5. Churches that don’t take into account the taxes and expenses pastors commonly incur

When I was serving a church in Indiana I once had a conversation with a candidate for the state assembly, no less. He was amazed when I told him that ministers paid taxes! Assumptions like this are not rare. But we should never find them among those who set a pastor’s salary, benefits or expense account.

When providing services for weddings, funerals, speaking engagements, etc., ministers will pay about 50% in taxes and costs, once state and federal income taxes, Self-employment Tax (for Social Security) and expenses are factored in. This means a $100 honorarium is really a $50 honorarium.

Enlightened congregations will see to it that such realities are taken into account when setting wages and deciding honoraria, for example in their wedding policies or for guest speakers. Pastors will be given expense accounts to cover use of auto, books, continuing education and more.

In conclusion I hasten to say: most religious charities are conscientious and dedicated to their ministries. Likewise, pastors I know are dedicated and sacrificial to their callings. They believe they have a duty before God to pay taxes and respect the law.

At the same time, I acknowledge we have often been weak when it comes to tax issues. We listen to gurus and convince one another that we don’t have to report some income or pay some taxes. I attended a ministers meeting once where a tax expert spoke and then listened to comments. At one point he said, “I can’t believe some of the things I’m hearing here today!”

The Apostle Paul was greatly concerned that his handling of funds for the needy be above reproach. His word should echo with us all: “We are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of men” (2 Corinthians 8:21 NIV).[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 56 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2023 Donald P. Shoemaker

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”March 2023 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Brandon Tsay, 26, disarmed the Monterey Park mass murderer Huu Can Tran, 72, before he could kill again at a dance hall in Alhambra, California. Tran put up quite a fight before fleeing. Alhambra awarded Tsay the Medal of Courage. He was also honored at the president’s “State of the Union” address.

If you falter in a time of trouble,
how small is your strength!
Rescue those being led away to death;
hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay everyone according to
what they have done? – Proverbs 24:10-12 (NIV)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]On Leaving a Church or Denomination

When Is It Time to Go?

I’ve seen splits in congregations and denominations. At least one church in my denomination had a 3-way split—we tend to do things in three’s! I’m thankful not to have experienced a big split during my own 55 years of ministry, though a dispute over music style did lead to a 10% loss many years ago—a skirmish in what came to be known as “worship wars.”

Both ugliness and virtue emerge during these times of trauma, and we can choose which to nurture regardless of which side we are on in the debate.

Division in church ministry is as old as the Book of Acts (15:36-41). Paul and Barnabas, Spirit-filled missionary giants, had a major contentious conflict over a man named Mark. He had departed the team once before and Paul didn’t want him on the team again, but Barnabas did. There may have been theological issues beneath the surface. Most splits have these, but also plenty of egotism and self-righteousness, personality conflicts and legalism. One side may be more correct on issues, but at the same time more corrupt in spirit.

In Paul and Barnabas’ case, God overruled and ultimately two successful mission enterprises happened, plus some reconciliation in later years. Sometimes two effective ministries can arise from a separation. Or not, if unhealthy dynamics at work on either side are not addressed.

When there must be separation, it is not a time to blow trumpets and brag about having God and Truth and Purity on your side. It is a time for tears, humility, self-examination, and fresh commitment as individuals and as a community of believers.

What may be justifiable reasons for leaving a congregation? And when is it time to go? Seldom is there a clear line to cross. More often there is a continuum where, at some point, people make subjective decisions that it is time to move on. Don’t judge others in their timing or decisions.

Here I mention four clusters of issues that may justify leaving. There are certainly more. I welcome your replies.

1. Doctrine and Morals
Does the church continue to embrace and proclaim the Classic Truths of the Christian Faith? Or does it put its finger to the wind? Is it moving to adopt some extra-biblical or anti-biblical teachings that reflect trends du jour?

Does the church hold to the moral values that have been reasonably discerned from Scripture by Christians broadly? Or is it, for example, wandering in sexual ethics or away from a deep commitment to the value of human life?

If it is moving into error in doctrine or morals, after gracious efforts to “right the ship” fail perhaps the time has come when it is prudent to move on.

2. Spiritual Gifts and Ministries
Christians differ over what spiritual gifts God gives to his churches today.
I do not have to take sides on this issue in order to make my comments here.

If you believe God has gifted you with particular spiritual abilities and filled your heart with certain passions of ministry, you need to be able to use these abilities and put your passions to work.

The church may disagree that (1) you have these particular gifts or (2) your ministry passions should be fulfilled in this particular church or made priorities by the church. I won’t take sides here either!

If you have “knocked on doors of opportunity” at your church and they won’t open, or you fail to gain the concurrence of church leaders on the use of your gifts perhaps the time has come when it is prudent to move on. You may be able to find a different body of believers where the gifts and passions you believe are yours can find fulfilling expression.

3. Balance and Emphases in Teaching
Jesus warned of teachers who major on minors. “You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:23-24 NIV).

If a church’s teaching ministry majors on minors, or if it is constantly on “hobby horses” and not nourishing the faithful by teaching the great themes of the Bible, perhaps the time has come when it is prudent to move on.

More!
• Is the church’s teaching legalistic? That is, does it hammer on issues of behavior or worship style that really aren’t commanded in the Bible?
• Is the church dabbling in politics? Do you not only need to be a Christian, but also be somewhere on the political spectrum to be accepted? (One of the best words I ever heard was when a new couple greeted me at the door after a service and said, “We’ve been here several times. We are liberal Democrats. And we want you to know we feel very comfortable in this church!” Same should be true for Christians who are conservative Republicans.)
• Is the teaching of the church preoccupied with “Bible prophecy” and its fulfillment before our very eyes?

If a church is into legalism or politics or obsessed with the fulfillment of prophecies, “I’m outta here!”

4. Authority Issues and “Strong Man” Leadership Style
How accountable is the top leadership of the church to a board free to think for itself? Or is the board loaded with pastor-appointed people, pastor’s relatives, or “yes men”? Are people free to graciously question leadership decisions without being told they “should not touch the Lord’s anointed”?

The pastor can have considerable authority but must ultimately be accountable. And the board must be accountable to the congregation.
It should go without saying, pastor and board and congregation are all accountable to God and stand judged by Scripture.

I personally believe a plural eldership of biblical-qualified people (1 Timothy 3:1-7, 5:17-20) is the best form of church government. It isn’t always perfect, but can keep pastoral leadership on course. It also avoids the errors of congregational government (not enough freedom for pastors to lead, for example). And it can deal with alternate authority structures that may arise in the church, such as pressure groups or a group of VSP’s—“Very Spiritual People.” And yes, some churches are “family owned and operated” and the pastor is expected to be a patsy to this ingrained though unofficial authority.

If a church is authoritarian or otherwise haywire on authority or its pastors unapproachable, perhaps the time has come when it is prudent to move on. What other issues do you think justify leaving a church or denomination?

A Final Word: Be a Helpful Communicator to your Pastor –
If your pastor is at all approachable and you are at all able to articulate your concerns clearly and graciously, do your best to let your pastoral leadership know your concerns before you decide to move on. Some who do this will ultimately move on anyway. Others may be able to resolve the issues and be fruitful and blest participants in the future life of the church.

Once you make your decision to move on…well, let me quote from that great expert on etiquette, Emily Post (even though she assumes the pastor is at fault, which often is not the case):

If your desire to make a change is due to the fact that you are not getting what you think you should from your particular faith, or perhaps your views are not compatible with those of the clergyman… You owe him an explanation of your reasons for changing parishes, either by letter or in person. Although it may be difficult, try to be very honest and clear, because while he may be hurt or upset at the time, your criticisms and comments may help him to see some of his failings and to serve his congregation better.
– Emily Post’s Etiquette—A Guide to Modern Manners, 14th Edition (1984)

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]“The Lord’s Prayer” #2 –
Praying for the Honor of God’s Name

“The Sermon on the Mount”
by Carl Bloch (1877)

“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.”

– Jesus (Matthew 6:9 KJV)

Mary and I are avid viewers of “Blue Bloods” through all its seasons. We often watch it at the time of our evening meal. So we’ve learned the mealtime prayer this Irish Catholic family uses in most episodes and have made it our own. After pondering this first petition of The Lord’s Prayer we have added new opening words to the mealtime prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Bless us O Lord and these thy gifts
which we are about to receive from thy bounty.
Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

This reflects the order found in The Lord’s Prayer. First we honor God’s Name. Next we pray for our material and spiritual needs. Both are important and necessary. But the first is first.

The Opening Address: God is both Near and Far

God’s nearness is seen in his “Fatherhood” and in our comfort in addressing him as such.

There are three senses in which God is “Father” –
Universally: God is Father of ALL HUMANITY (Acts 17:28)
Especially: God is Father of his SPIRITUAL CHILDREN
Uniquely: God is Father of our LORD JESUS CHRIST
The Lord’s Prayer addresses God as Father of his spiritual children

“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.“ (Romans 8:16-17)

Before moving on, I need to address a modern trend. It avoids referring to God as our “Father.” God is our “Father/Mother” or he is our “Parent” or the great Spirit who fills the universe (I guess this means God is “The Force”!).

These are not permissible options. Depart from the Bible’s usage and you have moved from the boundaries of Judeo-Christian thinking and probably into pantheism or some version of paganism. It is a different religion.

God is near, yet he is far – “…in Heaven.” If “Father” draws us to the closeness of God, “in Heaven” confronts us with the greatness of God.

“Be exalted, O Lord, above the heavens.
Let thy glory be over all the earth.”

God is our Father, but he isn’t our buddy.
God is our protector and provider, but he isn’t our butler.
Prayer doesn’t cause God to pop out of a bottle to serve us.

Whenever we say The Lord’s Prayer from our hearts, we confess the greatness of our God. He is close, but he is also majestic. And he is in the seat of authority to govern the course of history and our own lives.

Good worship services will reflect both God’s closeness and God’s greatness. There needs to be a balance here. Great cathedrals bring us before our majestic God. Many Evangelical services, especially Pentecostal ones, bring us before a God who is close (“Reach out and touch the Lord as he walks by…”). Neither God’s closeness nor his greatness is enough by itself. Bring them both together and you will have a service proclaiming that “God is here” both in his closeness and in his greatness, whether in a cathedral or a casual church or anything in between.

The First Petition: A prayer for the Honor of God’s Name

God’s “Name” is all the qualities and character of God made known to us.
For God’s Name to be “hallowed” is for it to be treated as something special and sacred (holy). God’s Name is set apart from all else. We reverence and adore his Holy Name. We must honor and reflect his holy character.

This petition calls on God to lift high his Name. God may do this directly or through his people. Sometimes the Bible speaks of God hallowing his own Name. “I will show the holiness of my great name” (Ezekiel 36:23). The Bible also speaks of God’s people hallowing his Name. “Let them praise your great and awesome name—he is holy” (Psalm 99:3).

The opposite of hallowing God’s Name is to draw God’s Name down into the gutter, to treat it as profane or ordinary, to flippantly toss around his Name.

I suggest there are three ways for us to uplift and not drag down God’s Name:

1. In our WORDS

Obviously, we should never use profanity. We should grieve whenever we hear God’s Name dragged in the dirt this way.

God’s Name also calls us to tell the truth. If God is a God of truth, we should be people of truth. We don’t have to be “under oath” to be truthful.

Avoid this way of profaning God’s Name (Christians sometimes do it):

We use God’s Name to validate a word we want to say or a decision we have made or a direction in life we are taking. “I felt the Lord telling me to say this.” Or, “God led me” to go this way, or to do that. Such claims are made worse in that they put the claimant above assessment if left unexamined.

Even worse, it questions the freedom of the Christian to make his or her own decisions and direction. If God gives me the freedom to do something (that is, it neither is commanded or prohibited in God’s Word), I don’t need to pull God’s Name into some pious phrase to justify it. God has already validated it through the freedom he has given me. Feeling the need to add a pious phrase shows a lack of faith in what God has already said.

2. In our WORSHIP

If we believe God is both great and near, that he is both present and very exalted when we worship, it will greatly impact how we approach worship.

Would we be “on time” (or early!) if a great person were speaking at our church? Would we get the best seat we could get? Would we prepare ourselves for worship? Would we be very attentive and involved mentally and emotionally? Sure we would! But we often are not, because we don’t take seriously our duty to honor God’s Name and presence in our worship. (For a powerful presentation of these thoughts read the first chapter of Malachi.)

3. In our WALK

Beyond our words and worship, our behavior must honor the Lord’s Name. Here is a sad scripture on dishonoring God’s Name (Romans 2:21-24):

You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

In contrast, Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (prior to giving us The Lord’s Prayer), “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Likewise, the Apostle Peter teaches, “Abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good works and glorify God…” (1 Peter 2:11-12).

How we represent God in our behavior may lead others to blaspheme God or to praise God. It’s our decision. Our commitment before God needs to be a determination to live out and lift up the meaning of my favorite hymn:

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty,
All thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea.
Only thou art holy, there is none beside thee.
Perfect in power, in love and purity.

Bible Insight – Pray the Beatitudes During Lent
(Matthew 5:1-10)

The First Beatitude:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Forgive us, Lord, of our spiritual pride—any attitude that we are spiritually self-sufficient or superior to others in knowledge or faith or spirituality or sense of mission. All we are, we are by your grace.

The Second Beatitude:

“Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.”

People mourn today because of the effects of sin. We mourn illness and death. We mourn persecution and oppression throughout the world. We mourn when evil is done to ourselves and others. We mourn our own sins as we confess them. Help us, God, to mourn with others and lift their heavy burdens.

The Third Beatitude:

“Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.”

True meekness has confidence in Jesus and in God’s promises. Lord, forgive us for our failure to nurture a spirit of meekness. Forgive the contention, strife, rage, abuse, domination and wrongful competitiveness that result. Lead us to fight fire with grace, and leave vengeance in your hands.

The Fourth Beatitude:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.”

Forgive us, Lord, when we go on our self-imposed spiritual diets and allow our lives to crowd out your Word instead of being nourished by it as we should be. We fail to eagerly search your Word, hear it taught and modeled by others so we might better walk in your will and please you in all we do.

The Fifth Beatitude:

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.”

Lord, if we have failed, in the words of the Prophet Isaiah, to lose the chains of injustice, to share our food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter, to clothe the naked, or help the oppressed, we humbly repent and we beseech your forgiveness as we resolve to fulfill this calling better.

The Sixth Beatitude:

“Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.”

Create in us a pure heart, O God. As we see Jesus in your Word and in others, mold us by your Spirit that we might be more like him. May the hope of Jesus’ coming purify our hearts and minds and deeds until that day when our eyes behold him and we are fully transformed to be what we should be.

The Seventh Beatitude:

“Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.”

Father in Heaven, we fail to fulfill “The Prayer of St. Francis,” that you would make us instruments of your peace, bringing love, pardon, faith, hope, light, and joy to our world of strife. We need your wisdom and grace to be reconcilers even as you have reconciled us to yourself through Christ.

The Eighth Beatitude:

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Father, your Word warns us that it is through many trials that we enter the Kingdom of God. Living in America, we’ve enjoyed freedom to live out our faith. Let us be warned that this may not last, even as many suffer now throughout the world because they live out their confession that Jesus is Lord.

Forgive our fear and timidity. Empower us with your Holy Spirit so we may face our trials, proclaim Jesus, live out our faith, and draw others to him. Amen.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Our Unalienable Rights—All of Them

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed . . .

On January 22, the 50th anniversary of “Roe v. Wade,” Vice-president Kamala Harris gave a speech in Tallahassee, Florida supporting abortion rights and lamenting last year’s Supreme Court decision. Excerpt:

So we are here together because we collectively believe and know America is a promise. It is a promise of freedom and liberty — not for some, but for all.

A promise we made in the Declaration of Independence that we are each endowed with the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Be clear. These rights were not bestowed upon us. They belong to us as Americans.

And it is that freedom and liberty that enabled generations of Americans to chart their own course and decide their own future with, yes, ambition and aspiration…

Source: “Remarks by Vice President Harris on the 50th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade,”
The White House/Briefing Room/Speeches and Remarks, January 22, 2023

Two comments:

First, the speech is memorable for what it left out. The vice-president omitted the words “by their Creator” and omitted the first “unalienable right” – the right to “LIFE”, followed by “liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” This demonstrates clearly how one can use the Declaration of Independence for whatever purpose, by simply altering it.

Second, I’m intrigued by the words, “Be clear. These rights were not bestowed upon us. They belong to us as Americans.”

This false distinction should not escape our notice. It’s as if the two statements about rights are “either/or” rather than “both/and.” Actually, “either/or,” (“bestowed” excludes “belong”) makes no sense.

In truth, our unalienable rights “belong to us” because they were “bestowed upon us” by none other than our Creator.

These rights don’t rise from the generosity of government, which might someday nefariously attempt to take away what it once gave (as is happening in many parts of the world under leftist rule). No, their “endowment” comes from a source infinitely higher than any government or people.

Government exists not to bestow our unalienable rights but to protect them, to “secure” them—keep them safe. If it does not, it loses its legitimacy, which the Declaration makes clear as it continues: “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government…”

President John F. Kennedy spoke exactly right in his inaugural speech on January 21, 1961 – “…the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state but from the hand of God.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]Revival News – A “Revival” is a breakout, often unplanned, of renewed spiritual interest in God, the Lord Jesus, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, worship, evangelism and societal improvement. It brings commitments to Jesus and may lead to many conversions.

As I complete this newsletter word is spreading across the country of a revival at Asbury University in Kentucky. The revival itself is spreading as well. It’s a big story in major media.

I have not seen a genuine revival since the “Jesus Movement” of the late 60’s and early 70’. “Yes, God, do it again!”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1672774688935{background-color: #c6956f !important;border-radius: 5px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

A Lenten Thought: “True Fasting” that Pleases God

This is what the LORD says,
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
To loose the chains of injustice, to set the oppressed free.
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter.
When you see the naked, to cloth them
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
– Isaiah 58:6-7 NIV[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 56 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2023 Donald P. Shoemaker

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[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”February 2023 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Buffalo Bill’s Defensive End Damar Hamlin

“The idea that prayer is improper at big-time sporting events was forgotten on Monday night [January 2]…. Suddenly prayer—the ancient activity of speaking to God in the belief that he can hear and respond—was everywhere.” – Barton Swaim, Editorial Page Writer, The Wall Street Journal (January 5, 2023)

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Now is as good a time as ever to be trained in Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and the use of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

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Why the Current Disinterest in Bible Prophecy?

When I was a young Christian in the 1960’s I was concerned that a disinterest in Bible prophecy seemed to be settling into evangelical churches and youth ministries. This was a BIG change from the 1950’s, when Bible Prophecy was a huge teaching theme. Trends in youth ministry pointed us to focus on the problems of this world and our role in changing things. Prophecy took a back seat, for it was seen as a hindrance to “this-world” ministries.

Everything changed dramatically again with the arrival of The Jesus Movement in the late 1960’s. Many of the “Hippies” who were attracted to The Jesus Movement were kind of “doomsday” people to begin with (the singer Barry McGuire, who converted to Jesus, was already known in the entertainment world for his song “Eve of Destruction”).

The Jesus Movement was highly influenced by the Calvary Chapel churches that grew from it and by Hal Lindsey, author of The Late Great Planet Earth. Calvary Chapels were strongly into Bible Prophecy and were (and still are) strong proponents of the “Pre-Tribulation Rapture.” Youthful Christians were taught that the Rapture could happen at any moment. Songwriters produced songs on prophecy themes (like Larry Norman’s popular pre-trib song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”). The youth of my own congregation in Long Beach, California started a regular “Jesus Meeting” gathering known as “Last Generation.” Youth-driven interest in prophecy topics had never been greater, I’m quite sure.

The popular film “A Thief in the Night” promoted a pre-tribulation rapture. San Diego-based pastor and author Tim LaHaye, whom TIME Magazine named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America, produced the immensely popular “Left Behind” series of 12 books that depicted a world in turmoil after the sudden pre-trib rapture of the saints.

Now today we have lapsed back into disinterest in Bible prophecy. One writer said you have to be over 50 to be interested (all those Jesus People are now well over 50!). This could be blamed on the excesses and extremes of some prophecy teaching. Or to the “this-world” orientation of a lot of teaching and ministries today (including efforts to change society). Or simply to a blind spot in our attention to some of the Bible’s key themes.

Whatever the reasons, the current disinterest is nothing new. “I’ve seen it all before!”

Churches, Pastors and Theologians need to be concerned about the current disinterest in Prophecy.

Churches need to intentionally reform themselves through a healthy restoration of Bible Prophecy.

Pastors should create a sermon series on Prophecy Issues designed to reignite interest in Bible Prophecy in the hearts of congregants—a series that is rational, Bible-based, theologically informed, timely and without speculations.

This is a slightly revised excerpt from my 2022 essay, “For Me, the ‘Rapture’ Is
Up in the Air!” The entire 29-page study is available as a blog on my Website.
Upon request, I will send you a PDF copy of the study. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Better Arguments, Less Heat

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger* once told a gathering of bishops and cardinals they needed to lower the temperature during a heated debate.

“The arguments are either convincing or they are not convincing; the tone can either be disturbing or helpful.

I suggest we help each other to take down the tone and strengthen the arguments.”

His reasoned temperance would serve debate well, whether the issue is theology, church policies, secular politics or anything else.
* Cardinal Ratzinger became Pope Benedict XVI in 2005. From his retirement in 2013 until his death on December 31, 2022 he served as Pope Emeritus.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

“The Lord’s Prayer” #1 – An Introduction

As [Jesus] was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

– Luke 11:1-4 (King James Version)

When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

– Matthew 6:7-13 (King James Version)

Over the next few months we’ll take a serious look at the prayer Jesus gave us to pray. Each study will look at one or more of the phrases of this prayer. Plus, this first lesson will give an introductory look at some features of the prayer. My desire is to increase our understanding and use of this prayer. The ultimate goal is to deepen our communication with our Father in Heaven through the teaching ministry of Jesus.

Introductory Teaching for Understanding “The Lord’s Prayer”

1. Jesus gave us The Lord’s Prayer so we would avoid meaningless prayer patterns (Matthew 6:7-8) and develop good prayer habits (Luke 11:1).

“Lord, teach us to pray…” Jesus’ disciples once came to him with this request (Luke 11:1). Jesus’ answer was what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” (2-4). This prayer is also taught in Matthew 6:9-13.

In Matthew’s version, Jesus gives this prayer to correct meaningless prayer habits—habits that are essentially pagan. “Use not vain repetitions,” that is, “Do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words” (6:7). The Greek verb for “babbling” is interesting—“battalogetō” (“to babble, to stammer, to speak without thinking”). It’s what we call an onomatopoetic word—its meaning comes from how it sounds, like “bang!” or “swish”. Don’t keep praying “batta-batta-batta-batta”—don’t pray any prayer that sounds like babbling!

Our God is not like the gods of paganism. He stands ready to hear. In fact, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (6:8).

So we pray with simplicity and with faith. God doesn’t weigh prayer by the pound. He hears the little child. “The Lord’s Prayer” is excellent for its simplicity. New converts often don’t want to pray out loud in public because, they think, they don’t know how. What they mean is they can’t pray like the “prayer giants” they hear praying at church. In reality, we should learn from the simple prayers of new converts.

I’ve been in prayer gatherings that go “batta-batta-batta.” I’ve been guilty of trying to pray with fancy words. I need to hear the lesson here.

2. The Lord’s Prayer gives us both a pattern to follow (Matthew 6:9) and actual words to say (Luke 11:2).

[Mt. 6:9] – “pray like this” – a pattern to follow. You don’t have to use the exact words, but learn to pattern your prayer life using this as a guide. You never have to wonder whether or not you are praying “in God’s will” if you are praying after the pattern of The Lord’s Prayer.

In Luke 11:2, Jesus says, “When you pray, say…” We can actually pray the very words of The Lord’s Prayer. We should never frown at the practice of Christians who recite the prayer privately or in worship liturgy. If anything, we should do it more often than we do. However, we must never allow The Lord’s Prayer to become like the empty repetition it’s supposed to prevent.

3. Jesus gave The Lord’s Prayer to us. He never prayed it himself.

Certainly Jesus prayed and practiced certain points of this prayer. He hallowed the name of his Father in Heaven. He prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.”

But he never prayed, “Forgive my sins.” Nor did he pray to “our Father,” but rather to “my Father.” The Gospels underscore Jesus’ unique sonship. See John 20:17 NIV – “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” The Lord’s Prayer is really “The Prayer of Jesus’ Disciples.”

4. The Lord’s Prayer reminds us that God must always come first. While our needs are important, God is all-important (as in the two “love commands”).

When Jesus taught the two “Love Commandments” he made it clear which was first (“Love the Lord your God”) and which was second (“Love your neighbor”). See Matthew 22:37-40. Both are important and necessary. But the first is primary.

So it is in The Lord’s Prayer. First we pray for God’s honor and kingdom. Second we pray for our needs. Both are important and necessary. But the first is primary. How often do we focus first on our “needs” and “wants” and fail to put God’s honor first (or even to mention it)?

5. The Lord’s prayer has (1) an opening address and (2) six petitions (two pairs of three).

God is addressed as “our Father in Heaven.” We will see that this address is vital and must not be changed. Six petitions follow: three for God and his honor, three for us and our needs.

6. The traditional doxology at the end of the prayer was added to later manuscripts and is not part of the original prayer.

It may disappoint, if not alarm, some Christians to learn that the phrase “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.” is not original to the Gospel of Matthew. Certainly, though, it is outstanding and true (and how could we sing Malotte’s The Lord’s Prayer without it?). It is proper to add these words to worship liturgy following The Lord’s Prayer.

7. Finally, it is important to see the differences between the Matthean and Lukan versions of the prayer.

Matthew has these statements not found in Luke [based on readings from The Greek New Testament, Society of Biblical Literature Edition, 2010]:
“Our” before “Father”, plus “…who is in heaven.”
“…your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
“…but deliver us from evil.”

Matthew’s prayer is for forgiveness of “debts” whereas Luke says “sins.”
A warning about the necessity of forgiving the sins of others (using the word “trespasses”) follows the prayer in Matthew. So here we see two of the many words that are synonyms for “sin.” (Public prayers typically use either “debts” or “trespasses.” What matters is that we all speak the same word together!)

There are no contradictions here. Nor do these differences affect the meaning of the prayer, except that Matthew’s word on forgiving others is explained. We may assume that Jesus taught about this prayer on many occasions.

Beginning next month we will examine the opening address and the petitions in The Lord’s Prayer. These introductory points will aid us as we look at them.
I encourage readers to check out the Internet to find an abundance of lessons and information. I also recommend Praying The Lord’s Prayer by J. I. Packer.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

First Amendment Liberty Vigilance –

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
– 1st Amendment

Tolerance, Diversity, Inclusion

Leftist Cancellations

• PEARLS BEFORE SWINE © Stephan Pastis. Reprinted by permission of ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION. All rights reserved.

The First Amendment limits the power of government. But it would be wrong to ignore the pedagogical effect of The First Amendment on the attitudes, conduct and policies of people and organizations in the United States. Below are two accounts of actions and attitudes (by government or businesses) that do not reflect the spirit of The First Amendment.

Will renowned neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s name be scrubbed from the Detroit school named after him?
Very possibly, if some school board members and activists have their way. Regardless of his medical accomplishments and public service and his role model for aspiring students, many resent his service in the Trump Administration, where he served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Carson grew up in Detroit as a disadvantaged child.

The school’s website has glowingly stated why it was named after Dr. Carson:
The school is named in honor of the acclaimed Detroit-born, African-American pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson. As a pediatric neurosurgeon…
Dr. Carson was honored with the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions. The school aims to honor the contributions Dr. Carson has made not only to the global medical community, but also as a role model for Detroit students with aspirations and interests in science and medical fields.
– The Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine in Detroit

Former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who served in that role during the Trump Administration, found that jobs can be hard to come by.
He explored jobs in academia but received rejection notices from university officials who worried that he would be badly received by their left-leaning student bodies. Some corporations decided he was too “tainted” to employ.
In September of 2021, Purdue University President Mitch Daniels hired him as executive director of health equity initiatives. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Back
The Badge
“Blessed are those who
maintain justice.” – Psalm 106:3

Line-of-Duty Deaths in 2022

Around 2 p.m. on December 29, 2022 Deputy Isaiah Cordero, 32, pulled William Shae McKay, 44, over for an unknown traffic violation in the city of Jurupa Valley, CA.

“As (Cordero) approached the vehicle, the suspect produced a (handgun) and shot the deputy,” Riverside (CA) Sheriff Chad Bianco told reporters Thursday night. Deputy Cordero died of his wound.

After an intense freeway pursuit McKay was shot and killed during a shootout between him and deputies.

Though McKay pulled the trigger, the sheriff pointed to the criminal justice system as the one that ultimately failed his department.

“This terrible tragedy should have been prevented by the legal system,” Bianco said at Thursday night’s news conference. “McKay has an extensive, violent past and was convicted of his third strike in November of 2021.”

McKay was a “violent felon” whose criminal acts began in the 1990s. Bianco said the shooter should have been locked away under California’s “three strikes” law. [December 30 News Account]

The killing of McKay was justifiable and righteous. The deputies did the will of God. The judicial system did not “seek justice” as it should (Roman 13:1-7; Micah 6:8).

Deputy Cordero was the last Line of Duty Death (LODD) in the U.S. recorded in 2022.* The total LODD in 2022 was 229. This number represents a decrease of 66% over 2021, when 669 LODD were recorded. The main reason for the decrease was a significant reduction in Covid-related deaths from 474 to 73.

Still, Covid was the leading cause of LODD in 2022 in spite of the dramatic drop. Other main causes of LODD in 2022 were:
• Gunfire (66)
• Automobile crashes (32)

These three causes led to 171 LODD, or 75% of the total deaths in 2022. Also important to notice is that 330 law enforcement officers were shot and there were 80 attempts at ambushing an officer last year.

The traffic stop is one of the most common enforcement exercises by observant, pro-active law enforcement officers. The “routine” traffic stop is anything but routine and cannot be treated as such. The approaching officer is at a tactical disadvantage. There is distraction and danger from oncoming traffic. Tinted vehicle windows obscure what the officer can see, especially dark front seat windows, which might be illegal.

Those in the vehicle need to comply with the officer’s orders. Officers must be firm and yet show appropriate courtesy. On top of all this, some of the public are always ready to pounce on officer conduct, at the slightest suspicion of rudeness or excessive force.

A Hancock County (Indiana) police officer pulled over murder suspect Bryan Kohberger and his father, Michael.** Traffic on the Interstate made it hard for the officer to hear occupants of the vehicle.

This traffic stop, following the fatal shooting of Deputy Cordero, underscores the inherent risk of traffic stops.

* The second LODD in 2023 was also a Riverside County Deputy Sheriff—Darnell Calhoun, killed by gunfire on January 13, 2023.
** Whether this and one other stop were done at the request of the FBI is now disputed.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1672774688935{background-color: #c6956f !important;border-radius: 5px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Social Media and the Explosion of Anxiety

“Anxiety, we know, is felt by heavy users of social media. A 2019 report from the Berkeley Institute for the Future of Young Americans suggests that the rate of university students with anxiety disorders has doubled since 2008, from 10 percent to 20 percent. [The report] attributes this to increased time on digital devices, social media in particular, as well as financial stress.

“In particular, students who spent more than twenty hours of leisure time per week on digital devices were 53 percent more likely to have anxiety than young adults who spent fewer than five hours a week doing so.”

– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Morality—Restoring the Common Good in Divided times (Basic Books, 2020), from pages 272-73

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www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 56 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2023 Donald P. Shoemaker[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”January 2023 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

A Scripture to Start the New Year

My son, do not forget my teaching,
but let your heart keep my commandments,
for length of days and years of life
and peace they will add to you.
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you;
bind them around your neck;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success
in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

– Proverbs 3:1-6 ESV

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Message of the Month

My “Thorn in the Flesh”

“…in order to keep me from being conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me,
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’”

– The Apostle Paul (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NIV)

It happened in the middle of the night in the fall of 1955. I still remember hearing my father’s painful groans. Our doctor quickly came to our home to examine him. Likely a kidney stone. The doctor sent him to the hospital.

My dad lay in the hospital for days and days at $8 a day. Finally he had surgery. His kidney was so damaged that it was removed along with the stone. Again he lay in the hospital for days, it seemed. When at last he went home it was for a long, slow recovery. I remember the long scar over his hip.

His remaining kidney eventually failed and he died of renal failure in 1972.

A year after my father’s episode my mother had a stone attack in the middle of the night, almost a carbon copy of my father’s incident. She too had surgery and a long scar but did not lose a kidney.

So my odds were not good. My first stone attack came in my early 30’s with a pain second to none. I passed it later that day in the hospital while being
X-rayed. The second stone came painfully two years later. Since then I’ve had several. Some by surprise with no pain; some with moderate pain.

In the 1980’s I heard about a new process called lithotripsy—the use of shock waves to knock a stone apart, allowing it to pass without surgery. I was carrying a stone, so I got on the list. I was glad for total anesthesia, because I learned right before the procedure that they put you in a sling wearing only the clothes you were born with. They moved you across the room in plain view and lowered you into a tank full of water.

He flew through the air with the greatest of ease,
The naked young man on the flying trapeze.

The doctor put your kidney in the crosshairs of two screens and fired surely the world’s largest spark plug hundreds of times till the stone broke up. The next day you felt like a horse had kicked you, but it beat surgery and a scar.

It’s all very different now. Last year and last month I had lithotripsy twice. You are wheeled into the procedure room and you scoot over onto a special cot. And that’s all I remember. The stone fragments (and there were many, like sand) pass over the next few days. I did have to go to the emergency room once because of pain. One stone I passed was 3/16” (4.76 mm). Rather large, I thought, to go down such a small tube.

And O yes, I prayed during the times of discomfort. I prayed a lot. “Lord, take this thorn away from me.” So far the Lord has been silent, though the “thorn” did pass. Paul’s word about God’s strength showing through us when we are weak bears remembering along with God’s assurance, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

The Apostle Paul didn’t precisely identify his “thorn” and that makes the scripture mean more for us. Assuming it wasn’t a literal “thorn,” Paul spoke about a messenger from Satan who afflicted him.

Some people are “thorns in the flesh” to put it milder than the metaphor of being a pain in another body part.

Are you facing down a thorn in the flesh?

Has God removed it in answer to prayer or is he ministering sufficient grace to you, to enable you to bear it?

Has it been a channel for God’s power to be experienced and seen in ways that would not have happened, had we been spared the pain?[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1881″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]

Every Business Needs a Prophet
Biblical Values in the Workplace

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“Hell Hath No Fury Like a Jilted Widow Seeking Justice”

(About the Duty of Those Who Serve the Public)

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’” [“…otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’” – New American Standard]

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly.”
– Luke 18:1-8 NIV

Jesus’ point is that God is not like that judge. He doesn’t have to be pestered. Justice is his middle name and he stands ready to render it (see James 5:1-9).

The justice implications of this story for today have not been well explored.

Jesus called the judge “unjust” because he dragged his feet in doing what his position required. He only thought of himself. Now I want to apply this to how businesses ought to be responsive to their customers in our modern era. I don’t think I’m taking undue liberties with the text.

This past Fall I tried to process a matter with a reputable company that handles some of my retirement accounts. It was not a complex issue.

First I encountered long waits on the “customer service” line that made the phrase an oxymoron. If a company has to say over and over, “Due to an unusually high volume of calls…,” then its time to add more lines and people to answer them. If a company says, “Your call is important to us,” then it should answer the call within ten minutes or the call ISN’T important to them.

Then, after a 40-minute wait on the fifth try a representative answered. He said he would email me several documents that would handle my issue. Then the call was lost. When I got the documents (6) I saw they were all wrong and of no use. On his email he was identified as a temporary “contract employee” so he apparently did not know his work very well. Not good for the company.

I called the company’s local office, which had been helpful in the past. But now their number just connects you to the dreaded “customer service.”

This now called for “The Penpoint Solution”! I needed to write two letters.

The first letter went “To Whom It May Concern” at the local office of this company. I briefly explained my issue and problems. Within a few short days I was contacted by a local rep who sent the forms I needed. I returned them, she reviewed them and submitted them. All is solved!

My second letter, as is my custom, was written to the company CEO. I knew he wouldn’t see it, but it might get “kicked down” to one who would see it and act. I prefer this over a “bottom-up” approach, and I often get good results.

I commended the company’s local rep. I expressed my frustration over the “your call is important to us” system and the rep who sent the wrong stuff. “I do not commend the poor customer service I had while trying to work with your phone-in system. You seriously need to improve this. Thank you for considering my concern.”

That yet awaits a response. I hope this company will no longer be “unjust” like the ruler who avoided helping his constituents. “Every Business Needs a Prophet” and all need to ponder how Jesus’ story about unjust treatment of constituents could implicate them.

We Need More Like “Good King Wenceslas”

Here’s a post-Christmas Carol we rarely sing. It’s about a good king, very different from the “unjust judge” of Luke 18. He used his position of authority to render a gracious act of kindness to a needy subject in his realm. “The Feast of Stephen” puts the song on “The 2nd day of Christmas.”

“King Wenceslas” actually was a 10th century Duke of Bohemia. The nineteenth century author of the carol was John Mason Neale and the tune “Tempus adest floridum” dates to the 13th century.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Good King Wenceslas looked out,
On the feast of Stephen,
When the snow lay round about,
Deep and crisp and even.
Brightly shone the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a poor man came in sight,
Gath’ring winter fuel.

‘Hither, page, and stand by me,
If thou know’st it, telling,
Yonder peasant, who is he?
Where and what his dwelling?’
‘Sire, he lives a good league hence,
Underneath the mountain,
Right against the forest fence,
By Saint Agnes’ fountain.’

‘Bring me food and bring me wine,
Bring me pine logs hither,
Thou and I will see him dine,
When we bear them thither.'[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Page and monarch forth they went,
Forth they went together,
Through the cold wind’s wild lament,
And the bitter weather.

‘Sire, the night is darker now,
And the wind blows stronger,
Fails my heart, I know not how,
I can go no longer.’
‘Mark my footsteps, my good page,
Tread thou in them boldly,
Thou shalt find the winter’s rage,
Freeze thy blood less coldly.’

In his master’s steps he trod,
Where the snow lay dinted,
Heat was in the very sod,
Which the Saint had printed.
Therefore, Christian men, be sure,
Wealth or rank possessing,
Ye who now will bless the poor,
Shall yourselves find blessing.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from inter meddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.”
– Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808

UPDATE: Religious Freedom and The “Respect for Marriage Act”

With great fanfare President Biden signed the “Respect for Marriage” act on December 13, 2022.

Simply put, here’s what the “Respect for Marriage Act” [RMA] does:

• Repeals the “Defense of Marriage Act” (1996), which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court had already nullified it.
• Requires states to recognize same-sex marriages that were solemnized in other states. (It does not require states to allow same-sex marriages.)
• Gives the Department of Justice the right to take civil action and give “harmed” individuals the right of private action when a violation of RMA is perceived to have occurred.
• Recognizes a marriage “between two individuals” if it is valid in the state where it occurred. Polygamous marriage is clearly not recognized.
• As amended by the Senate it specifies that RMA does not impact religious liberty or conscience. “Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to diminish or abrogate a religious liberty or conscience protection otherwise available to an individual or organization under the Constitution of the United States or Federal law.”
• As amended it specifies that non-profit religious organizations [with a list of examples] including faith-based social agencies and educational institutions are not required to provide any services or goods for the purpose of solemnizing or celebrating a marriage and cannot be subject to any civil claim or cause of action.

My observations after December 13, when the bill was signed into law:

1. One who has followed the religious freedom assurances in this new law (as I have) would think something entirely different was signed on December 13 the way the news media reported on the signing ceremony.

News coverage and politicians either ignored the religious freedom protections (Section 6), or gave a token word about them. To say no clergy will be forced to perform a same-sex marriage is to convey a protection in search of a problem. Except for an extremist fringe (personified in Beto O’Rourke of Texas), no one has called for forcing clergy to perform a marriage. Such abuse of power would never stand the scrutiny of the First Amendment.

Likewise, the need to protect interracial marriage by this legislation is, in today’s America, another protection in search of a problem.

2. I heard comments about the need now to push for new legislation—specifically, the “Equality Act.” With its repudiation of religious liberty protection, the “Equality Act” would be a disaster for religious freedom.

3. Only the naïve would think RMA is the last word on polygamous marriage.

4. The Supreme Court’s “Obergefell v. Hodges” decision (2015) set up a potential conflict between LGBTQ+ rights and First Amendment religious freedom rights. Language in RMA somewhat removes this potential conflict.

Without the “Religious Liberty and Conscience” exemptions RMA would be flawed by its one-sidedness. I previously decided I would without great enthusiasm support RMA because of the religious liberty amendment which, though incomplete, preserves the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and is needed. (“Support without great enthusiasm” is a far cry from giving it an “endorsement.”)

5. Please note the position statement on RMA by the National Association of Evangelicals (an appendix at the end of this newsletter).

For comments of support of RMA by the Mormon Church see: https://www.deseret.com/2022/11/28/23482594/respect-for-marriage-act-religious-freedom-latter-day-saints

“Roe v. Wade” Would Have Been 50 This Month!

When “Roe v. Wade” reached its 25-year mark in January 1998 I wrote the following opinion piece. It was published as an op-ed in the Long Beach (CA) Press-Telegram on January 22, 1998, the 25th anniversary of the day the Supreme Court rendered its decision.

Of course, “Roe” didn’t survive to reach its 50th birthday. It was reversed by the court in its “Dobbs v. Jackson” decision of June 24, 2022. Decisions about abortion were returned to the several states where they belong. The court rejected the claim that abortion rights were rooted in a “right to privacy” to be discerned in the U.S. Constitution’s “penumbra.”

As you read this op-ed, think about how relevant its statements continue to be. Or are they outmoded and now replaced by—what?

Does not my comment about the continuing debate even today still resonate?
“Rather than resolving the great debate, Roe v. Wade fueled the most acrimonious polarization of our time which shows no signs of abating.”

Roe v. Wade at 25 – Abortion Debate Still Rages

By Donald P. Shoemaker
Senior Pastor, Grace Community Church of Seal Beach, California
Chairman, Social Concerns Committee, Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches

My aunt and uncle live in a fine Southern California retirement community. During a recent visit I was taken by my uncle on a tour of the community’s nearly completed state-of-the-art facility for Alzheimer’s patients.

We looked inside one room that would soon house a patient. There was no mirror in the bathroom for there is no need for a mirror. The patient who would eventually stay there has no awareness of who he or she is.

Relatives of the patients will be able to visit with them in a comfortable sitting area. But there will be no depth of communication, for the Alzheimer’s patient no longer has a capacity for an “I-Thou” relationship.

As this disease takes its toll, connection with the past and present is lost. All sense of futurity is gone.

When my uncle and I tried to leave we had a problem. There was no way to open the facility’s door from the inside without knowing a special code. This is needed because Alzheimer’s patients no longer have a sense of “here” or “there” and must be protected in their movements lest they wander aimlessly and into danger. We located a worker who could let us out.

The best of care will be provided for these dependent patients. And so it should be, for the spark of human dignity remains in them. As Christian teaching would affirm, they yet retain, in spite of their physical brokenness, the Image of God.

Since my visit to that care facility I have often thought of the issue of “personhood” and how a debate on human personhood and abortion has raged for three decades since permissive abortion laws were first put on the books in the 1960’s. Originally designed for “those truly tough cases,” the laws triggered an abortion avalanche and were themselves swept away by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision 25 years ago today.

“Right to Life” advocates have argued for a genetic understanding of personhood. Human life, it is said, begins at conception and ought to be respected and protected from violent assault from then until natural death. Personhood is tied to the biological fact of being human, one of “us” rather than an “it” or one of “them.” Right to Life advocates have argued for the full person of unborn humans or at least that enough claim to personhood exists for the life of the unborn to be worthy of protection.

Others have seen personhood as a developing value throughout the prenatal state. In this case, our unborn have a greater and greater claim to life and protection and any termination of their existence requires increasing grounds for justification the longer they exist in utero. As a result, these people join with the “Right to Life” advocates in wanting to ban late-term abortions, especially the gruesome and barbaric “partial birth” (dilation and extraction) procedure.

Defenders of permissive abortion laws, of course, do not see matters that way. Personhood is connected to socializing capabilities, or perhaps to intellectual capacities.

Philosopher Mary Ann Warren has argued that there are five traits central to the concept of personhood which we can summarize as (1) consciousness, (2) reasoning, (3) self-motivated activity, (4) the capacity to communicate and (5) the presence of self-concepts and self-awareness. Not all of these need be present for a “person” to exist, but a measure of them must exist and a being that lacks all of them is certainly not a “person” in a moral sense.

The late medical ethicist Joseph Fletcher had a long list of personhood criteria, including self-awareness, time consciousness, a sense of futurity, a sense of the past, the capability of relating to others, communication and control of existence.

Criteria like these clearly exclude the unborn from the realm of “persons.” Abortion can be endorsed as an acceptable moral practice secured, as the Court saw it, by a “right to privacy” implicit in the U.S. Constitution.

What may surprise others but which certainly does not escape the notice of thinkers like these is that infants aren’t “persons” by this standard either. Nor are the comatose and others who lack self-awareness and self-control. Infants lack a moral claim to personhood and therefore are disposable, although we may value them for their potential and charm or for other utilitarian reasons.

As the issue of human cloning rises on the scientific and ethical horizon, a justification could be made for cloning human life and harvesting body parts to serve the rest of us who have successfully achieved our personhood, at least in the eyes of those who control things.

Which brings me full circle to the excellent care facility for Alzheimer’s patients. By the thinking that has prevailed to give us abortion, these patients are not persons. Unlike the unborn, their futurity and their social and intellectual potential are gone. As their disease has progressed, they have gradually but surely lost all claim to the care and love and protection personhood would afford.

In Roe v. Wade, the court threw up its hands and professed agnosticism on the issue of when personhood begins. Incredibly, it then proceeded to adopt a particular view of personhood (you have value at birth) and imposed a model of prenatal “trimesters” and a latitude which, in effect, have given us abortion on demand. The court never allowed the open public debate and legislative deliberation on this issue that is appropriate in a free and democratic society.

When the Supreme Court ruled on doctor-assisted suicide last summer, this practice did not receive the constitutional “green light” its advocates had hoped for. One might have expected the court to declare a right to assisted suicide on the same “right to privacy” grounds that gave us abortion on demand. But the court saw the need to guarantee “an earnest and profound debate about the morality, legality and practicality of physician-assisted suicide [that should take place] in a democratic society.”

That statement may be the closest thing we will hear from the court that sounds like an apology for Roe v. Wade. Rather than resolving the great debate, Roe v. Wade fueled the most acrimonious polarization of our time which shows no signs of abating.

My aunt passed away in October 1998 and my uncle passed in January 2006. They are interred in Arlington National Cemetery, where I was honored to officiate at his military funeral.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1672774688935{background-color: #c6956f !important;border-radius: 5px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]More from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks…
Campus Intolerance vs. the Collaborative Pursuit of Truth

“[My year at Oxford University] was a glorious experience, thrilling, bracing, mind-expanding. I discovered that university was a place where you listened respectfully to views radically opposed to your own, in the knowledge that others would listen respectfully to yours.”

“Since then, university campuses throughout the West have become places of swirling intolerance of a kind I never thought I would see in my lifetime.”

“A cluster of concepts that has invaded Western university campuses [his examples: micro-aggressions, safe spaces and banning of speakers] has had the cumulative effect of putting at risk academic freedom and the role of the university as the arena of intellectual diversity, reasoned argument, civil debate, respectful listening, and the collaborative pursuit of truth.”

– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Morality—Restoring the Common Good in Divided times (Basic Books, 2020), from pages 169-74[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Maturity in Christ
By Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

[W]e should speak of the “measure of the fullness of Christ,” to which we are called to reach in order to be true adults in the faith. We should not remain infants in faith, in a state of minority. And what does it mean to be an infant in faith? Saint Paul answers: it means “tossed by waves and swept along by every wind of teaching arising from human trickery” (Ephesians 4:14). This description is very relevant today!

How many winds of doctrine we have known in recent decades, how many ideological currents, how many ways of thinking… The small boat of thought of many Christians has often been tossed about by these waves – thrown from one extreme to the other: from Marxism to liberalism, even to libertinism; from collectivism to radical individualism; from atheism to a vague religious mysticism; from agnosticism to syncretism, and so forth. Every day new sects are created and what Saint Paul says about human trickery comes true, with cunning which tries to draw those into error.

…[R]elativism, which is letting oneself be tossed and “swept along by every wind of teaching,” looks like the only attitude (acceptable) to today’s standards. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one’s own ego and one’s own desires.

However, we have a different goal: the Son of God, true man. He is the measure of true humanism. Being an “Adult” means having a faith which does not follow the waves of today’s fashions or the latest novelties. A faith which is deeply rooted in friendship with Christ is adult and mature. It is this friendship which opens us up to all that is good and gives us the knowledge to judge true from false, and deceit from truth.

…At the hour in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus transformed our rebellious human will into a will shaped and united to the divine will. He suffered the whole experience of our autonomy – and precisely bringing our will into the hands of God, he gave us true freedom: “Not my will, but your will be done.” In this communion of wills our redemption takes place: being friends of Jesus to become friends of God. How much more we love Jesus, how much more we know him, how much more our true freedom grows as well as our joy in being redeemed.

Thank you, Jesus, for your friendship!

Excerpts from Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger’ homily on the opening day (April 18, 2005) of the Conclave that would elect the next pope following the death of Pope John Paul II. Cardinal Ratzinger, who died December 31, would be elected the following day and become Pope Benedict XVI.

APPENDIX: The Position of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) on the Respect for Marriage Act

The Position of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) believes God designed marriage as an exclusive covenantal relationship between a man and a woman. We cherish the freedom to preach, teach and practice these core convictions, while respecting our fellow citizens who do not share these beliefs. For this reason, we welcome the religious liberty protections in the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA).

The NAE does not agree with the understanding of marriage expressed in this bill. But precisely because our beliefs are not shared by many of our fellow Americans, we welcome the additional protections that Congress provided in this bill for those who do hold traditional beliefs about marriage.

Some of the religious freedom provisions in the bill include:
• Congress finds traditional beliefs about marriage are reasonable and deserve respect. Congress for the first time has declared, on a bipartisan basis, that “[d]iverse beliefs about the role of gender in marriage are held by reasonable and sincere people based on decent and honorable religious or philosophical premises. Therefore, Congress affirms that such people and their diverse beliefs are due proper respect.” This reduces any threat to the tax-exempt status of religious organizations with the Internal Revenue Service. There is no basis in this bill for a national policy equating support for traditional marriage with racism or bigotry.
• Existing religious freedom protections are reinforced. The bill acknowledges the existing constitutional and statutory protections for religious freedom, and none are diminished by this act. This includes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which some in Congress have worked to diminish in scope, as well as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act.
• New protection for religious schools and nonprofits. The bill expressly provides that religious nonprofits and their employees “shall not be required to provide services, accommodations, advantages, facilities, goods, or privileges for the solemnization or celebration of a marriage.” These organizations and persons also cannot be sued for exercising this right.

Since the Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in 2015, same-sex marriage has been legal in all 50 states as well as in all U.S. territories. The Respect for Marriage Act does not change that. In the unlikely event that the Supreme Court were to overturn Obergefell, the RMA would require states to continue recognizing same-sex marriages licensed in other states, but it would not require any state to issue same-sex marriage licenses. The significant change with the RMA is that religious organizations receive the religious freedom protections outlined above.

These freedoms were not contained in the original version of the RMA passed by the House of Representatives in July 2022, nor were they in the initial Senate version. We issued a statement reaffirming our convictions about marriage and the need for robust religious freedom protection in any legislation. Several senators negotiated the additional provisions that became part of the final bill including, notably, Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Rob Portman (R-OH), with the support of the bill’s chief sponsors, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

The NAE will continue to support efforts that strengthen religious freedom protections for all people. The bipartisan process leading to the inclusion of religious freedom protection in this bill demonstrates that, despite deep and significant disagreements, advocates of religious and LGBTQ rights can work together to reduce hostility between our communities. This opens new doors to respectful relationships and a more winsome gospel witness and ministry with all our neighbors.

December 9, 2022

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 56 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2023 Donald P. Shoemaker[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”December 2022 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Mary and Elizabeth

My soul doth magnify the Lord,
And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden:
for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
For he that is mighty hath done to me great things;
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.

– Mary’s Song “The Magnificat” (Luke 1: 46-50 KJV)

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M“O Come Let Us Adore Him!”

F– Worship at the Birth of Jesus
(10th and Final Essay on Worship for 2022)

“Pastor Don, why doesn’t our church have a Christmas Eve service?”

“I’m always trying to come up with new ideas but I have two problems. One, half my ideas are no good. Two, I don’t know which half!” I shared this thought several times over the years with church leadership and a couple of times in sermons.

So it was with Christmas Eve services for many years. “Pastor Don, why doesn’t our church have a Christmas Eve service? I’d really like to spend this time with my own church family!” – from a High School girl, devout and active in our church. My standard answer drawn, I thought, from many years of experience: “Our church just isn’t much into special services.”

But one year I finally gave it a try and we had our first Christmas Eve service.
The church was absolutely packed, which for us would be over 300. Good riddance to my wrong idea about Christmas Eve services! Since then, we’ve increased to two and then three services.

People really love to sing at Christmas time. They really, really love to sing traditional Christmas Carols. They want to hear familiar biblical stories about the birth of Jesus. Visitors will come and come. Now I know! Christmas Eve and Easter are the two times we can still draw visitors with relative ease, even in the highly-secular communities where many of us live.

Here are some pointers for having a fine Christmas Eve experience:

1. Plan the service(s) with visitors foremost in your mind. No “in house” or unexplained terms about Christmas (like “The Incarnation”). If you focus on visitors, members will benefit too. But the opposite isn’t true.
2. Advertise as would be reasonable in your locale (our small community has a newspaper everyone gets, and I preferred a large ad in it). But remember that personal invitation by church members is the best way to bring in visitors—tried, tested, proven.
3. Keep the service under an hour. Too much of a good thing can ruin it. Better to have people wish they had sung more than wish they had gotten out sooner. Remember, it’s a busy season for many.
4. Separate the services by enough time for people to fellowship, for the worship area to be tidied up, and for parking to “turn over.” I’d recommend a one-hour break, but half an hour might work.
5. I have no opinion on whether afternoon or evening service times are better, or a mix of the two. This is a bigger issue if you have only one service.
6. Have the worship location abundantly decorated for Christmas, indoors and out. Clear and prominent signage on childcare, restrooms, worship area.
7. Sing the familiar, traditional Christmas Carols and do it with simplicity, not with a lot of flourishes or anything else that would stifle singing.
8. Don’t sing the carols in isolation from one another, but tie them in with the Christmas stories of the Bible through appropriate scripture readings.
9. Have special music, but be sure to make it impactful. Use the best talent the church has to offer. Don’t overdo it.
10. If someone can do it skillfully, have a Children’s Story with the children down front. But make it brief and interesting to the kids (the adults will love it too). If you can’t do these with ease, leave it out.
11. Soft sell the church to visitors through brief, excellent announcements and a table display. Visitors are not a captive audience. Make them feel welcome but not on the spot. Make them want to come back.
12. Don’t take an offering or, if you do, make it specific to some special seasonal ministry of care.
13. Share the Gospel in a simple, brief sermon, drawn from the biblical stories of the birth of Jesus. Invite a heart-response. But no tricks or “come forward” invitations.
14. I’m ambivalent about having everyone holding a lit candle. Check fire regulations. You can’t be too careful.
15. If you have multiple services, treat each service and those present as if it’s the only service you are having. Never refer back to a previous one.
16. Serve some hot Wassail outside after the service. The tavern next door to our church often would prepare it for us for free (and not spiked)!
17. One idea if you have multiple services: schedule one as late evening (11:00) and serve Communion at it (and see how it goes).
18. Sadly, have more-than-adequate security for the services.

If, as this year, Christmas Day falls on a Sunday, have just one service (space permitting) and include all groups and ages in it. Limit it to one hour. Consider the wisdom of whether to make it identical to the Christmas Eve services. And don’t forget—lots of Christmas Carols and scripture readings.

Christmas celebration can continue into January if Epiphany Sunday (January 8 next year) is observed. It is based on the visit of the Magi (Matthew 2).

Songs We Learn from the Stories of Jesus’ Birth

One reason the Christmas Stories induce worship is that they introduce us to God’s Holy Spirit—an essential power in genuine Christian worship.

The Holy Spirit’s presence and power enable robust, sincere singing from our hearts. A mark of the truly Spirit-filled church is its heart-felt singing to God.
“Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making music from your heart to the Lord.” (Ephesians 5:18-19)

No surprise, then, that the Holy Spirit inspired four songs that have become vital features of Christmas worship. And no surprise that the Gospel of Luke, which lets us know that the coming of Christ brings the era of the Holy Spirit, would have these songs for us. We know them by titles that come from the first word(s) of their text as found in the Latin Bible.

1. The “Magnificat” – Mary’s Song (Luke 1:46-55)

Mary’s Song emerges from a marvelous encounter between two, no—make that four, persons: (1) the Virgin Mary herself, (2) her relative Elizabeth, (3) Elizabeth’s unborn son John, and (4) Mary’s unborn son Jesus (1:39-45).

After Elizabeth blessed her (“Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord said to her will be accomplished!”), Mary exclaimed:

• She, Mary, would be honored by God for her humble obedience (46-49). All generations will call her “Blessed.” The reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) said of Mary, “She deserves to be called blessed, for God has accorded her a singular distinction, to prepare his son for the world, in whom she was spiritually reborn.”
• Her son will turn the world’s values upside down (50-53). He will give mercy to those who fear him, but dismantle the proud and powerful. Mary’s words, a standing challenge to our errant status quo, should mold our understanding of God’s will for his world more than they do.
• God will remember his promises to his people and be their help (54-55).

2. The “Benedictus” – Zechariah’s Song (Luke 1:67-79)

The Christmas Story actually begins with the story of an old man named Zechariah, a priest of God favored to be the father of “John the Baptist.”
Read the fine accounts in Luke 1 of Zechariah, his wife Elizabeth, and John.

On the day baby John was circumcised (the 8th day), Zechariah brought forth the Spirit-induced song known as the “Benedictus.”

• Jesus will bring us deliverance from our spiritual enemies and enable us to delight in doing the will of God (68-75).
• John will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord (in the person of Jesus) and will bring them the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins (76-79).

3. The “Gloria” – The Angels’ Song (Luke 2:13-14)

An angel appeared to shepherd in the fields watching their flocks at night and relayed the “good news” that the Savior was born in Bethlehem that very day. “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger” (2:8-12).
A great company of the heavenly host suddenly appeared with the angel, praising God and saying the word of the “Gloria” (verse 14).

• Praise to God.
• Peace to all on whom God’s favor rests. “Goodwill to men” (King James Version) is most familiar. But the words are not universal. Not everyone accepts God’s grace, so not all enjoy the peace that grace renders. “Peace” follows “grace” often in the New Testament.

4. The “Nunc Dimittus” – Simeon’s Song (Luke 2:29-31)

Fast forward to eight days after Jesus’ birth, when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to be circumcised. A godly Spirit-led man named Simeon had been assured by the Spirit that he would see “the Lord’s Christ” before he died. Embracing the baby Jesus in his arms, he exclaimed:

• He could now “depart in peace” for he had seen God’s salvation.
• The child will be a blessing to all people—a light of truth to Gentiles and glory to Israel.

Songs we’ve come to love that grew from the Christmas Stories

Handel’s “Messiah” tells many parts of the Christmas story. Much of it draws from texts in the Old Testament, especially from the Prophet Isaiah. I find two choruses clearly drawn from the New Testament:

• “Glory to God” (the angelic chorus of Luke 2:14). This majestic and hard-to-sing chorus follows four recitatives that sing of the appearances of the angel of the Lord and of the company of angels (2:8-13).

• “Behold the Lamb of God” rises from the cry of John the Baptist when he saw Jesus approaching to be baptized (John 1:19).

We enjoy singing many traditional Christmas Carols that link to “The Story” (several of these can fit into multiple categories):

• Mary’s Visit by the Angel and Her Song(Luke 1:26-56)
“To a Virgin Meek and Mild”
“Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”

• Zechariah’s Song (Luke 1:67-79)
“Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus”
“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”

• The Birth of Jesus (Luke 2:1-7)
“Silent Night”
“Joy to the World!”
“Away in a Manger”
“What Child Is This?”
“O Little Town of Bethlehem”
“Good Christ Men, Rejoice”
“O Holy Night”
“Once in Royal David’s City”
“He Is Born, the Divine Christ Child”
“Of the Father’s Love Begotten”
“Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne”
“He Is Born”

• The Shepherds and the Angels (Luke 2:8-20)
“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (The greatest carol of all!)
“While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night”
“Angels We Have Heard On High” (“Gloria in Excelsis Deo”)
“Go, Tell It on the Mountain”
“The First Noel”
“On Christmas Night All Christians Sing”
“Infant Holy, Infant Lowly”
“Angels from the Realms of Glory”
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”

• The Coming of the Magi (Matthew 2:1-12)
“We Three Kings”
“O Come, All Ye Faithful”
“As with Gladness Men of Old”

Some Christmas Carols look beyond the birth of Jesus to the coming of God’s Kingdom in its fullness. Isaac Watts’ “Joy to the World” (1719) proclaims, “He comes to make his blessings known, far as the curse is found…”

Similarly, a few carols move past the birth of Christ to a vision of a world with peace and justice. The Unitarian minister Edmund Sears wrote that way in
“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” (1849). Perhaps the best-known example is the wonderful poem, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1863).

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep.
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Christmas Season would be incomplete without meaningful carols that refresh our hearts with the richness of its meaning. The Spirit of God would not have given us poetry about Jesus’ birth if it did not contribute highly to our understanding of that message and our worship of “Him who came.”

So, “O come let us adore him! Christ, the Lord.” Merry Christmas!

[To Those Who Select the Songs in our Churches: All the traditional Christmas songs are in the Public Domain. So publishers have done with them as they wish. In selecting songs, we must be sure that all the words match among the various ways we share them (hymnbooks, handouts, projection, etc.). Otherwise some will sing this while others sing that.][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

“I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from inter meddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.”
– Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Miller, 1808

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must…undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine

Religious Freedom and
The “Respect for Marriage Act” (HR 8404, S 4556)

I’m passionate about religious liberty. But I need to remind myself from time to time: “I have to choose carefully which hills to fight on.”

The “Respect for Marriage Act” (RMA) with an amendment that addresses many concerns about religious liberty has passed the Senate. It now goes back to the House (because there was no amendment when the House first passed it). If passed, it goes to the President for his signature.

Simply put, here’s what the “Respect for Marriage Act” would do:
• Repeal the “Defense of Marriage Act” (1996), which defined marriage as between a man and a woman. The Supreme Court already nullified it.
• Require states to recognize same-sex marriages that were solemnized in other states. (It does not require states to allow same-sex marriages.)
• Give the Department of Justice the right to take civil action and give “harmed” individuals the right of private action when a violation of RMA is perceived to have occurred.
• Recognize a marriage “between two individuals” if it is valid in the state where it occurred. Polygamous marriage is clearly not recognized.
• As amended by the Senate it specifies that RMA does not impact religious liberty or conscience. “Nothing in this Act, or any amendment made by this Act, shall be construed to diminish or abrogate a religious liberty or conscience protection otherwise available to an individual or organization under the Constitution of the United States or Federal law.”
• As amended it would specify that non-profit religious organizations [with a list of examples] including faith-based social agencies and educational institutions are not required to provide any services or goods for the purpose of solemnizing or celebrating a marriage and cannot be subject to any civil claim or cause of action.

The above is a summary and obviously the bill is more detailed. My comments are based on the text and status of the bill as of November 29, 2022.

My observations:

1. Competent people and organizations that I respect have contrasting opinions on RMA. Some Christian legal scholars insist that the “Respect for Marriage Act” does not sufficiently protect religious faith and practice in addition to guaranteeing recognition of same-sex marriages. Others insist that religious protections, while not thorough, are quite broad in RMA.

I definitely note that RMA does not extend its protection of religion to people of faith who exercise their convictions in the secular workplace. No employee or business owner should be compelled to speak (such as through artistic work) words that support a marriage that violates his/her religion-formed conscience. If “Freedom of Speech” means anything, it means that.

However, the RMA does avoid perpetuating the error of the now-comatose “Equality Act” that would have taken away the right of people to assert the important Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) as a protection for their exercise of religious freedom in matters covered by the act. This is critical.

2. The “Respect for Marriage Act” likely represents (but didn’t create) the greatest cultural shift of my lifetime. In 1996 the U.S. Congress passed the “Defense of Marriage Act” by supermajorities (342-67 in the House, 85-14 in the Senate). It was supported and signed by President Clinton. At the time, American opposition to same-sex marriage was around 70%.

I understand that 70% of the American public now accepts same-sex marriage. In 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court (Obergefell v. Hodges) decided that same-sex marriage was a constitutionally guaranteed right. It is strongly supported by President Biden. These are simple facts, not opinions.

3. Yes, the church has a definite responsibility toward the wellbeing of society. Early Christianity did, after all, strongly oppose infanticide as practiced in its culture. But the church can be under no sense of illusion or compulsion that it must make society conform to all its moral positions. In other words, it must choose what hills to fight on. If we keep the tension between what we work to accomplish in this age versus what we hope for when Christ’s Kingdom is realized we will avoid the (phony) charge that we are “Christian nationalists” out to impose our religion on the reluctant. Keeping this tension also means we can settle for “half of a pie” at times. It recognizes that the process of legislation involves tradeoffs.

As a Christian social activist I have weighed these developments carefully and thought about what the role and responsibilities of Christian churches, faith communities and individuals are to be in our present cultural environment.

I ponder the words of the Apostle Paul: “What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside [answer: ‘Yes!’]? God will judge those outside” (1 Corinthians 5:12-13). And God’s judgments are fair and true.

My decision is to double-down on support for religious liberty. RMA does not establish the right to same-sex marriage. That has already been done. Without the “Religious Liberty and Conscience” exemptions RMA would be flawed by its onesidedness. I have decided I will without great enthusiasm support RMA because of the religious liberty amendment which, though incomplete, preserves RFRA and is needed.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1669913730660{background-color: #c6702d !important;border-radius: 5px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

How Essential Is Truth?

“A world of truth is a world of trust, and vice versa. In it, there is something larger than individuals seeking their own interest. Where there is honesty—truth and truthfulness—there tends to be law, order, and prosperity.
A respect for truth is essential for authority, collaborative endeavor, and human graciousness… Where truth dies, there trust dies.”

– Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Morality—Restoring the Common Good in Divided times (Basic Books, 2020)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Message of the Month

This Thanksgiving – Thankful for Family, God’s Plan for Passing the Faith to Future Generations

My wife and I have been listening to the Book of Deuteronomy. Again and again, I hear how important it is (1) to keep in touch with history and (2) to pass the faith and its values on to future generations.

A man once told me, “It’s not my job to teach religion to my children. That’s the Church’s job.” The latter part is true; the first part totally false. The church is there to support the parents’ efforts and nurture the faith of families.

And Moses declared, “Hear, O Israel: Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

“Teach them [God’s instructions] to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 11:19)

Message on the Bottle:
PAIRS WELL WITH
Officiant duties
“Will You Marry Us?”

The lesson is that parental love for God and the beliefs, values and commandments that come from God’s Word are to be conveyed through all the experiences of life. Bible reading at the table is important; how the parents live out the lessons of their faith day by day is all-important.

This Thanksgiving was especially poignant for me. My granddaughter Rylee (our first) recently became engaged to Justin, a fine young man. At our Thanksgiving gathering they, well, let the picture tell the story![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]My Alma Maters, Grace College (B.A., 1966) and Grace Theological Seminary (M.Div., 1969) in Winona Lake, Indiana have installed DR. DREW FLAMM, Ph.D. to be their seventh president.

A high-energy leader, at 40 one of the youngest college presidents in the U.S., he brings experience, dedication and “can do” motivation to his role. His inauguration into his new role marks a generational change but not a change in energetic leadership as he succeeds Dr. Bill Katip, a “pedal to the metal” president if there ever was one. Drew makes “Knowing Christ and making Christ known” (the motto of the college and seminary) his clear, Christ-centered theme.

The college is remarkably different from when I arrived as a student in 1962 to become part of a student body a fraction the size of my high school graduating class. Grace is known now for its innovations, many achievements, strong enrollment, community engagement, a fine campus and more. I wish and pray the best to the new president and I’m proud to be an alumnus twice over!

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 56 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”November 2022 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

This Thanksgiving – Give thanks for God’s Gift of Life

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul know the right well.

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being un-perfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

– Psalm 139:13-17 (King James Version)

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“Proposition One” – California’s Voters Will Decide

“The state shall not deny or interfere with an individual’s reproductive freedom in their most intimate decisions, which includes their fundamental right to choose to have an abortion and their fundamental right to choose or refuse contraceptives. This section is intended to further the constitutional right to privacy… and the constitutional right to not be denied equal protection… Nothing herein narrows or limits the right to privacy or equal protection.” – Text of Proposition One

“Proposition One” is the response of California’s governor and legislature to last summer’s “Dobbs” decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. “Dobbs” ruled that abortion was not a right secured in the U.S. Constitution. It returned the issue back to the states, which is where it was before “Roe v. Wade” (1973).

Please take a minute to note my observations on this proposition:

• Proposition One makes abortion an absolute right, whereas Roe v. Wade explicitly rejected the notion of “abortion on demand.”
• Roe v. Wade acknowledged (in its controversial “trimester” statements) a claim to life on the part of the viable fetus. Proposition One ignores any claim to life on the part of the human fetus, including after viability and up to birth.
• California’s abortion laws (going back to the 1960’s and considered “progressive” by abortion advocates at that time) allowed for abortion up to fetal viability (except in cases of fetal deformity). Abortion was also permitted at any time prior to the birth of the unborn child to protect the life or health (broadly understood) of the mother. The “Dobbs” decision does not change any of this.
• Through legislation and advertising, the State of California and its governor are promoting the state as a “welcoming destination” for anyone seeking abortion who lives outside the state, including through a website: www.abortion.ca.gov.
• Abortion, including the right of a minor child to have an abortion without parental notification or consent, is protected by California’s current privacy laws.

Before there was a national debate over abortion (late 1960’s+), the popular weekly publication LIFE Magazine had a pictorial issue titled “Life Before Birth.” It began,
“The birth of a human life really occurs at the moment the mother’s egg cell is fertilized by one of the father’s sperm cells” and “In the Western world a person’s life is reckoned from the day he comes out of the womb. But the Chinese, overestimating by three months, traditionally counted a child one year old at birth in recognition of the unceasingly active life that has already taken place.”

This reflected my own secular, non-religious understanding before I developed any religious convictions on the issue. A pregnancy decision involves two patients—the mother and the unborn child. In light of this, I cast my vote against “Prop. One.”[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

Back the Badge
“Blessed are those who maintain justice.” (Psalm 106:3)

Still touched and grieving
eleven years later

October 12, 2011 – Early in the afternoon an armed and angry man bent on evil entered a salon in Seal Beach, California and killed eight people including his ex-wife.

The case languished for almost six years, hindered by charges of prosecutorial misconduct. Be that as it may, the perpetrator pled guilty in 2014 and was sentence to eight consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for the worst mass murder in Orange County history.

First responding police officers were willing to put their lives on the line to engage the perpetrator however necessary(he was captured right away). Several officers then had to be involved in the traumatic crime scene investigation, offer care of arriving family members, coworkers and friends (we opened a family assistance center at a nearby library), and in one case an officer accompanied a wounded man to the hospital in an ambulance (he did not survive).

The families and the community will never be the same. The police department, dispatchers, fire and police first responders will never be the same. As a police chaplain who continues involvement in the aftermath of this event, now eleven years later, I can say I will never be the same.

Each year, a few minutes after 1:00 p.m., I gather with some family members at the memorial to this massacre located in a park near the ocean. We reminisce, we share words of comfort and purpose, we observe a minute of silence, and I offer a prayer. I did this again on October 12th.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” said William Gladstone, 19th Century British politician. Whatever the reasons, valid or regrettable, for the great delays in (flawed) justice, I grieve at the additional stress and sorrow the delays put on the families of the victims. And I honor fire and police personnel who sacrificed so much to do their jobs that horrible day and thereafter.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

Message of the Month –
“A Day to Reflect on Life”

Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

O satisfy us early with thy mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

– Psalm 90 (verses 1, 2, 10, 12, 14) KJV

October 31 is a threshold day for me. In years and months and days I reach the age my mother was when she passed away. She died four months after being diagnosed with cancer, passing in our home as she desired. My wife provided marvelous loving care and we were assisted by fine hospice personnel.

Also sadly, I passed my father’s “too soon” date of death fourteen years ago.

I thank God for each day and its gift of life—its joys and opportunities and, yes, challenges.

The Bible is so very realistic:

• God is eternal; we are mortal. Best we live each day aware of this.
• We need to treat each day as significant. We should count them as we count the hairs on our head—the Bible’s way of speaking of the significance of even small things. This counting wouldn’t take me as long now.
• We have “today” – we should make the most of it. It is a day to offer God a heart of wisdom. It is a day to express love, make that phone call we’ve been putting off, enjoy that activity we’ve been thinking about, attend worship as we have opportunity, enjoy family, serve the Lord.

“God, thank you for the years of life with which you have blessed me.”

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“Triumphant Worship: The Book of Revelation” – 9th Essay on Worship for 2022

Throughout much of my Christian life (age 9+) I looked on the Bible’s last book, the Book of Revelation, as a mysterious unfolding of the End Times, a puzzle to be pieced together. If we thought we had it figured out, my how dogmatic we could be!

A creative thought entered my mind a few years ago as I read and pondered this book anew. Is it possible to look at this book “Doxologically”? That is, can Revelation be seen as a Book of Worship? I viewed the whole book through that lens and marveled at the treasures waiting to be opened. As you move through the coming points, see how many songs you recognize!

1. I learned about the God I should Worship

In Revelation we immediately see incipient worship of God as a Trinity. True, it would be many years for the Christian church to articulate the doctrine of the Trinity as it still resonates with us. But it would be wrong to overlook the “seeds” of this teaching found in the New Testament.

“Grace and peace to you from him which is, and which was, and which is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth” (1:4-5, see through verse 8).

Our God is powerful Creator of All. So we sing, “Thou art worthy…to receive glory and honor and power, for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created…” (4:11 King James Version)

We worship “the Lamb of God” who was slain, his blood shed for our redemption, who now lives and rules (see 5:9-13). “Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing” (5:12). God the Father and Jesus the Lamb are worshiped together: “Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (5:13).

I use the King James Version throughout this essay because of its elegant poetic language. Painting by Raphael (1518): Michael the Archangel vanquishes Satan (Revelation 12:7-9).

2. I learned about the Worshipers too

The heavenly worship scene in chapters 4 and 5 has a fascinating sequence of worshipers. It starts (I am happy to say) with a quartet! “Four living creatures” repeat the praise: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come” (4:7).

Second, a choir of 24 elders breaks into praise (4:11 and 5:9-10). This is followed by a huge multitude of angels (5:11-12), then by the whole of creation (5:13). Lastly, the praise reverts back to the quartet, with their “Amen!” as they prostrate themselves in worship before God (5:14).

I challenge every worship leader to think creatively on how a version of this could be reflected in our worship services! Start small, crescendo greatly, decrescendo to how you began, end with demonstrable worship.

A special category of worshipers is highlighted in Revelation—persecuted saints. They have “come out of the great tribulation” (7:13-14) and cry out, “Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

They are now in God’s presence, never to suffer again, their tears forever wiped away (7:15-17). Think of this scene when you think of all who are persecuted a lot or a little today for being faithful to Jesus. Think creatively on how the spirit of this heavenly scene could be expressed in today’s worship.

3. I learned about how Worship can be done

The Book of Revelation records many features of worship. Many Christians have never practiced them but some Christian traditions include them in worship. Being in the Book of Revelation, they are ipso facto forms of “New Testament” worship and can be incorporated into our worship accordingly.

We find honor and humility expressed in actions. The Elders fall down and lay their crowns before God’s throne (4:10). The writer John falls down before the glorious Christ (1:17). Prostrating oneself isn’t natural to many American Christians, but it certainly is an appropriate form of worship.

Symbolic clothing may be worn. A worshiping multitude is clothed in white robes (7:9), probably symbolizing purity. On occasion (commonly at weddings) I’ve worn a robe which (I think) befits the solemnity of the occasion. I conducted a funeral in South-Central Los Angeles once and, as the only “Anglo” present, I thought it befitting to show respect to the occasion and to all who attended by wearing a robe.

Worshipers celebrate by holding palm branches – we at least might do that on Palm Sunday (7:9). Incense and smoke accompany the rising of our prayers to God (8:3-4). Such prayers may include pleas for God to judge evil, given how the angel takes the censor containing the prayers and, before God, fills it with fire and hurls it to the earth. If this scene is found in “Revelation Worship” then such symbolism is certainly appropriate now.

Then we read about extremely loud praise (5:12; 7:10). In much of my background this kind of worship would be seen as hyper-emotionalism, except in my Pentecostal circles. We may frown on it and avoid it. Perhaps instead we ought to engage in it “when the Spirit moves us all.”

Then there is worship through silence—for half an hour (8:1). This seems to be the “silence of awe” prior to a great work of God. There can also be the silence of preparation, prayer, sorrow, patience and more. Whatever the silence expresses, it shows a place for “holy silence” in worship. But there is also boring silence, so we must be discernful. “Holy silence” rises as a challenge to some contemporary worship styles which always have to have something happening—fast movement, sound bites, quick images, etc.

The Lord is in his holy temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him. (Habakkuk 2:20)

I wouldn’t want to be legalistic either way—banning these forms of worship or demanding them, certainly not as proofs of spirituality. I do want to be open to them, whether they seem highly liturgical or highly emotional.

4. I learned about Worship that SHOULDN’T be done

In Leviticus 10:1-5 we read the chilling account of the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, priests and sons of the High Priest Aaron. What was their wrong? Offering “unauthorized fire” before the Lord contrary to his command.

The passage raises more questions than answers. We’re not told exactly what they did wrong. I think the key phrase is: “…contrary to [God’s] command.”

Our Christian liberty gives us lots of freedom to be creative in worship. We don’t have to have a command from God for everything we do. But we must not do anything contrary to his command. Are we guilty in this? Do we break worship rules such as in 1 Corinthians 14 (use of spiritual gifts) or 1 Timothy 2 (modest dress at worship)? Do we forsake the Lord’s Table? Do we fail to practice robust Spirit-filled singing in our services? Are our messages truly “preaching the Word” or have we wandered off track?

Here are three forms of worship forbidden in the Book of Revelation:

• Worship of Demons and Idols (9:20-21)
• Worship of the Devil and the Antichrist (13:4, 11-17; 14:9-10)
• Worship of Godless Commercialism (read the lament of chapter 18)

Finally, we must not worship God’s angels. Twice in this book John falls before God’s angel as the angel conveys God’s invitation to “the wedding supper of the Lamb” (19:10) and shows him The New Jerusalem (22:8). In both cases the angel says, “Do not do it! Worship God!” (verse 9). “Worship” here (the verb is proskuneō) is simply to “fall toward.” It is forbidden to “proskuneō” before an angel or before a spiritual leader (Acts 10:24-26).

When Jesus squared off with the Devil and his temptations, Jesus responded forcefully and clearly: “Worship [proskuneō] the Lord your God, and serve him only” – Matthew 4:10. Interesting that John observes the glorious presence of Jesus (1:12-16) and fell at his feet as though dead (1:17). Jesus accepted that worship and placed his right hand on John, saying, “Do not be afraid.”

Obedient worship of God is a matter of the highest urgency. The Book of Revelation gives us marvelous guidance through instruction and example and worship texts (see next page). Let’s hear and heed what God’s Spirit is saying to the churches about worship.

Next Issue: “ ‘O Come Let Us Adore Him!’ – Worship at the Birth of Jesus”
–10th and final Essay on Worship for 2022

Worship Songs given to the Church
from the Book of Revelation

George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah”

“Worthy Is The Lamb” (5:12)
“Amen” (5:14)
“Hallelujah!” (11:15; 19:1-4, 16)

Other Christian Hymnody and Choruses
Just a partial list I compiled! What songs would you suggest?

“Lo, He Comes in Clouds Descending” (1:7)
“There’s a New Name Written Down in Glory” (2:17)
“Round the Throne” (chapter 4)
“Behold Our God” (4:2)
“Holy, Holy, Holy” (4:8)
“Thou Art Worthy” (4:11)
“Is He Worthy?” (5:2-5)
“You Are Worthy” (5:9)
“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” (5:11)
“All Hail the Power of Jesus Name” (5:11-14; 19:11-16)
“To Him Who Sits on the Throne” (5:13)
“Agnus Dei” (5:23)
“I Wish We’d All Been Ready” (6:5-6)
“Blessing and Glory and Wisdom and Thanks…to our God forever” (7:12)
“Are You Washed in the Blood?” (7:14)
“We Shall Overcome” (12:11)
“Come, Ye Thankful People, Come” (14:14-16)
“Battle Hymn of the Republic” (14:19)
“Praise Our God, All Ye His Servants” (19:5)
“Crown Him with Many Crowns” (19:12)
“The Holy City” (21:1-3, 23; 22:4-5)
“Twelve Gates of the City” (21:12-13)
“Lily of the Valley” (22:16)
“All Who Are Thirsty” (22:17)
“Soon and Very Soon” (22:20)

Whether they’re the or the

“…there’s no joy in Mudville Cleveland.  Mighty Casey has struck out.”

I grew up in north-central Ohio, and only one baseball team really mattered there—the Cleveland Indians. If you went over the border into Pennsylvania, you might want to temper your enthusiasm for the Indians. That’s Pirates country and them folk won’t take kindly to you.

The Indians had a triumphant season in 1954, winning 111 games and going confidently to the World Series where the NY Giants restored their humility in four games. 111 wins! Can anyone say “2022 Dodgers,” knocked out dramatically in the division championship by the San Diego Padres? The Indians haven’t won a series since, losing this year in the division games.

But they did get a name change! First, let me stipulate that “Chief Wahoo” was bad for both the team and Native Americans. May he RIP.

But “Indians”? “Any use of Native American names and/or symbols by non-native sports teams is a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping that promotes misunderstanding and prejudice which contributes to other problems faced by Native Americans.” – so sez over 115 professional organizations, including scientific experts (as if the issue has anything to do with science).

I’m underwhelmed by the Words & Symbols Police. I lived in “Indiana” (will that change?) for eight years and saw native terms and titles everywhere. In sports, Indian names speak of prowess and valor and strength and resolve.

The new name comes from The Hope Memorial Bridge with its statuary “The Guardians of Traffic.” It’s right near the ball stadium. If it had to happen, it seems like a good change. Plus, it’s clever that only two letters had to be dropped: INDIANS became the GUARDIANS. And the lettering style stays.

Look out! BRAVES, WARRIORS, CHIEFS—you’re next. What about team names expressing barbarism and thievery: PIRATES and RAIDERS? Then we’ll move on to the Los Angeles ANGELS and the San Diego PADRES, with their religious names that may cause some to feel left out. Besides, the name PADRES is odious to some who resent the influence of the Catholic Church in California’s history.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who does now own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.”
– Jesus (John 10:11-13)

Putting Human Faces on the Immigration Issue

After stripping on knee-high snake guards and bowing his head to invoke God’s protection, Tucson-based Pentecostal pastor Oscar Andrade marches off into a remote desert at dawn to look for a Honduran migrant missing since late July.

The pastor bushwhacked for three hours in 100-degree heat, detouring around a mountain lion, two rattlesnakes and a scorpion.

On the fourth search, the pastor and his Capellanes del Desierto [Desert Chaplains] rescue and recovery group found the man’s ID card and wallet 40 feet from a skull and other bones, picked clean by animals and the relentless sun.

Since March, Andrade has received over 400 calls from families in Mexico and Central America whose relatives—sick, injured, exhausted—were abandoned by smugglers in the borderlands.

Forensic experts estimate 80% of bodies in the desert are never found. The bodies found point to one of the deadliest seasons on record along the always-dangerous Southwest border.
– October 22, 2022 Long Beach Press-Telegram (edited excerpts)

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 55 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”October 2022 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing,
Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Relic of Self-Esteem

Phrases like this have been displayed in public schools and elsewhere to promote students’ self-esteem.

It’s far from a sure thing! Sadly, some of those students will make the world worse. Self-esteem is built over the years as skills, wisdom and service develop, along with respect for self and others as people made in God’s likeness.

Better to grow up working on how we want the world to look back upon us: “The World Became a Better Place Because You Were in It!”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Important Word to Everyone,
Especially Pastors and Church Leaders

Churches and Political Action—
What Pastors and Churches Should and Should Not Do

The present election season is extremely important in American politics. So what’s a pastor or church to do? Or not do? From my 50+ years of activism and based on the law as it now stands, I offer these thoughts to assist you.

These guidelines have appeared here before. They were even distributed once to a list of pastors by Americans United for Separation of Church and State, an organization with which I rarely agree!

I challenge all churches to do all they can that is legal and ethical, but not to cross the line. Please share these three pages.

– Donald Shoemaker

1. I RECOMMEND these points of guidance:

• Always maintain a distinction between the ultimate issues of the Kingdom of God and the penultimate possibilities of the political process. The latter are worthwhile but not perfect. They are secondary and not primary. They need the church’s voice and attention but must not get top billing.
• Preach on morally laden issues and proposals like good or bad legislation or initiatives. But be sure that the biblical “connectedness” is made clear. Of course we preach sensitive to the congregation and visitors in such matters, but avoiding the topics should not be considered an option.
• Have the church’s official body (Elders, board, or congregation) take positions on issues subject to the above qualifications and when the issue is important.
• Do voter registration at the church before and after services. This is a non-partisan activity.
• Have a forum to educate church members on ballot initiatives. Have a table for people to sign initiatives the church has approved.
• Encourage members to write elected and appointed officials to express their opinions and to ask for a vote for or against a measure.
• Have your facility used for voting, subject to acceptable rules (for examples, I wouldn’t accept a demand to cover the cross but removing a literature table may be acceptable). This is a natural way of showing interest in the wellbeing of your community.
• DO NOT politicize your message. By “politicize” I mean stridently or subtly speaking for or against a particular party or political stratum.
• Remember, the spiritual upbuilding of the saints is always the goal in a worship service. This influences sermon style and content immensely.
• Politically activist Christians must remember that the unity of the church must transcend all political and secular unities.
• Remember the admonition (I’ve made it often and sometimes it’s been heard with much irritation, but at least the point wasn’t missed):

“The church is the one place where a liberal Democrat and a conservative Republican should be able to join hands and sing,
‘We Are One in the Bond of Love’.”

2. From a LEGAL STANDPOINT, here are the “Do’s and Don’ts”:

• Churches MUST NOT endorse or oppose a candidate.
• Pastors MAY as individuals support or oppose candidates, but MUST NOT convey that they speak for their churches. And they should not proclaim their “personal decision” in any church medium (like the pulpit or newsletter or on-line). No preaching, “I’m not telling you who to vote for and I’m not speaking for the church, but here are the people getting my support…”
• Churches MUST NOT use their resources (like facilities, property or equipment) in contexts that endorse or oppose a candidate.
• Churches MAY invite candidates to speak if done even-handedly and not selectively. Their presence in a service or in the pulpit MUST NOT convey the church’s support of any candidate.
• Churches MAY distribute voter guides, but I don’t recommend it because almost all have a “slant” to promote. I also would not allow members or outside groups to bring literature to the church or blitz cars in the church’s parking lot with flyers. If outsiders show up or blitz the parking lot, it may be wise for the pastor to disavow the activity.
• Churches MAY schedule a forum where the candidates for an office are invited to speak and answer questions. If only one shows up that’s not a legal problem, but it may not look the best and the church would need to be careful not to have the occasion appear to be an endorsement of the candidate who appeared.
• Churches MAY spend money and lobby and encourage members in support of or in opposition to an initiative, ballot measure, or a piece of legislation. The limitation is that the resources expended MUST NOT be “substantial”. This may be interpreted as “not more than 5% of resources”, which would almost never be exceeded in churches as reticent as evangelical churches traditionally are. The limit applies not just to money spent but also to factors such as paid staff time.

3. Topics to Proclaim:

Churches have a powerful communication instrument known as “The Pulpit” (even if “pulpit” is now a metaphor). Here are some topics, which could be sermons, sermon points, or discussion points:

• Immigration from a biblical perspective
• The Sovereignty of God over the governments constructed by human beings (“The Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.” – Daniel 4:25)
• Religious Freedom and how it is eroding
• How healing can come to fractured race relations
• The duties of good Christian Citizenship (in light of our living now in a multi-religious and participatory republic rather than in the Roman society that disadvantaged and even persecuted believers and where few had citizenship rights)
• The need for fiscal wisdom and accountability in government
• Godly people of the Bible who served the secular state and society of their times (Joseph, Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah)
• How God works peace and justice through governments he establishes, be they ever so fragile and faulty
• What God expects of secular rulers and those who “bear the sword”
• The Issue that Won’t Go Away—Protecting Unborn Human Life

donaldshoemakerministries@verizon.net[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

♪“The Answer, My Friend,
Is Blowin’ in the Wind.”♪
– Or Is It???

This picture is of a younger “me”, taken around 1989. I am at the top of Mt. San Gorgonio after camping for a night along the 23-mile trail. At 11,503’,
Mt. San Gorgonio is the tallest mountain in Southern California. To the right of my left shoulder is 10,834’ Mt. San Jacinto, my favorite mountain to climb. Palm Springs is behind the ridge over my right shoulder.

Between the two mountains is the San Gorgonio Pass. It’s one of the deepest (9000’) passes in the U.S, where wind whips through at high speed day in and day out. It’s one of the most continually windy spots in the U.S.

One segment of the wind farm, with Mt. San Gorgonio in the background

So the San Gorgonio Pass is the most natural place I can think of to have wind turbines. And over the years I’ve looked down from San Jacinto Peak to see more and more and more, almost to the point of turbine blight. But I still understand why we would want to put them there.

There was an effort to construct turbines off the windy coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, but localists fought it off, including environmental guru John Kerry. Mr. Kerry, a “not in my backyard” man or a “do as I say, not as I do” man (or both), travels the world in a private jet to fight global warming. Private jets are proportionately the worst means of travel when it comes to global warming.

The problem with wind power and solar power is their lack of constancy. They are intermittent in many places. So if we’re going to light our cities and charge our cars dependably, we’re going to need other sources of energy.

One is cheap hydropower, but as our rivers and reservoirs get lower, that won’t be as dependable. Another is natural gas—clean and plentiful. But in a few short years natural gas has gone from trendy (remember signs on trucks like: “This Fleet is Powered by Clean Natural Gas”) to an obscenity. Those who love cooking with natural gas may not be able to do so soon (back to electric!).

Another source of dependable power is nuclear generation. But many have considered that obscene for years. California has only one nuclear plant left, which produces 8% of the state’s electrical demand. It’s slated to close, but Gov. Newsom signed legislation to extend its life to the dismay of some.

Nuclear power has its challenges, especially storage of “spent” fuel, but if we applied the same determination, resources and research to that power source as we do to other futuristic sources of power (which may not succeed), I think we could see a (literally) brighter future. Some opponents of possible power sources seem to leave environmental science behind to embrace ideology.

Today (September 3) as I write this first draft, it’s 104 degrees outside. We’ve got the A/C set at 79 degrees. Our electric bill is high (electric is up 25% over a year ago) and there are threats of rolling blackouts. People are now being told—listen to this!—not to charge their electric cars between 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. The main reason I can think of for charging one’s electric car at 4:00 p.m. is that you need to do so. Otherwise, you’d wait and charge it at night.

Where are we going to get the energy to produce the electric we’ll need when California’s ban on new gas-powered vehicles comes in 2035? How are we to protect our planet while serving the reasonable needs and enjoyments of all (including billions of disadvantaged people around the world, for whom strong environmentalism is a luxury and hindrance to a little prosperity)?

These are creative challenges to us who take the Bible’s creation mandate seriously. God created humans in his own likeness and told them to subdue the earth and rule over all other created life (Genesis 1:26-30). This rule is to be for human enjoyment and benefit, but it also must be a responsible, respectful and conservation-oriented caretaking, as many scriptures testify.

“Let the birds increase on the earth” – God’s creative word on creation’s “5th Day” (Genesis 1:22). Wind power has a special challenge: How to minimize the death of birds. I surveyed some literature and found wild disparity on how many birds are killed by windmills compared to other sources of energy (reflecting some bias, I’m sure). Since nobody is counting carcasses, estimates range from 140,000 to 328,000 annually. Some argue that taller, bigger windmills are more dangerous and others say they’re safer. Should we take comfort that only 19 birds die per megawatt of energy in California (but only 4/mg overall in the US!!)? Of real concern is the disproportionate death of larger and exotic birds, including some on the Endangered Species list. One report claimed that 75 golden eagles die each year due to the 5000 turbines at a single wind farm (of five) within the Alamont Pass Wind Resource Area in California.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

T“Worship Beneath the Cross of Jesus”(Luke 23:26-56)

– 8th Essay on Worship for 2022

(“Crucified for us under Pontius Pilate,
He suffered death and was buried”

The Nicene Creed (325 AD)

For Christians, Jesus’ death on the cross is a powerful moment of history. “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18 NIV).

The Apostle Paul opposed any softening of the Gospel. The Gospel was being diminished in the church at Corinth by the “wisdom of this age” to make it fashionable. Against this, he asserted, “We preach Christ crucified!”

Modern “wisdoms of this age” include religious liberalism, Americanism, “self-help” and therapeutic messages, religious-zeal environmentalism, political issues, “health and wealth” gospels, “wokeness” and adjustments in worship and message to draw crowds. Many can be found in evangelical churches.

If the cross of Jesus is central to our message and who we are as Christians, then surely it will be central in our worship. If it isn’t, something is very wrong. What are some themes of the cross that should affect our worship?

1. The Cross calls us to FOLLOW Jesus in SUFFERING and OBEDIENCE.

As Jesus was led away to be crucified, “They seized Simon from Cyrene…and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus” (Luke 23:26).

Perhaps Simon was in Jerusalem for the Passover celebration. Whatever his reason for being there, he happened to be in the right place at the right time. He felt the touch of a Roman sword on his shoulder and heard a voice of authority say, “You have just volunteered!”

So Simon carried the cross for Jesus, becoming a type of every follower of Jesus, modeling what our task should be. Jesus said (Luke 14:27), “Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”

Not all suffering is cross-bearing, and not all cross-bearing is from obedience to Jesus (some Christians make their own crosses and carry them loudly!). But when loyalty to Jesus leads to suffering and sacrifice, you are taking up your cross and following Jesus. See 1 Peter 2:20-21 and 4:15-16.

Simon’s deed and our own calling to bear the cross should lead us to sing:

May I be willing, Lord, to bear daily my cross for Thee;
Even Thy cross of grief to share. Thou hast borne all for me.
– “Lead Me to Calvary” by Jennie Evelyn Hussey, 1921

2. The Cross sets forth Jesus as THE MAN FOR SINNERS.

Jesus offended the VSP’s— the Very Separated People. On the day of his baptism he identified with sinners. He feasted with sinners, and his accusers asked him, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:27-32).

Again and again, Jesus placed himself on the side of the sinner crowd rather than with the self-righteous crowd (read his encounter with the crooked tax collector Zacchaeus— Luke 19:1-10).

Now at Calvary, Jesus is once again with sinners. “Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals, one on his right, one on his left” (Luke 23:32-33).

In worship we celebrate “the Man for sinners” and declare:

Man of sorrows! What a name for the Son of God who came.
Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
– P. P. Bliss (1875)

Jesus! What a friend for sinners. Jesus! Lover of my soul.
Friends may fail me; foes assail me. He, my savior, makes me whole.
Hallelujah! What a savior. Hallelujah! What a friend.
Saving, helping, keeping, loving—he is with me to the end.
– J. Wilber Chapman (1910)

3. The Cross teaches us FORGIVENESS – GOD forgives, WE should too.

Jesus prayed for his tormenters (Luke 23:34). “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

This prayer must have caught on with the first Christians because Stephen, the first Christian martyr, prayed the same way at his execution. Stephen fell to his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” (Acts 7:60).

Paul knew what it was like to experience God’s forgiveness: “I was once a blasphemer, a persecutor and a violent man. I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly” (I Timothy 1:13-14). He would teach the church: “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). So in worship we bear witness to forgiveness:

Five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary.
They pour effectual prayers, they strongly plead for me.
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry, “Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”
– “Arise, My Soul, Arise” by Charles Wesley (1742)

Upon that cross of Jesus mine eye at times can see
The very dying form of One Who suffered there for me;
And from my stricken heart with tears two wonders I confess;
The wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness.
– “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” by Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane (1868)

4. The Cross brings us SALVATION because JESUS BORE OUR SINS.

He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;
The punishment that brought us peace was upon him…
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:5-6)

One of the two criminals crucified with Jesus said, “We are getting what our deeds deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong.” He turned to Jesus and pleaded, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replied,
“I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:42-43).

Guilty vile and helpless we; spotless Lamb of God was he.
Full atonement—can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior!

What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered was all for sinners’ gain.
Mine, mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
– “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” attr. to Bernard of Clairvaux (12th Century)

5. The Cross signals Jesus’ VICTORY over DEATH, EVIL and the DEVIL.

I have two problems with how evangelicals often observe Communion:
(1) We hurry through it. We have “fast food” McBread and McCup. “Here’s the Bread, here’s the Cup—We’re all done, time is up.”
(2) We are too somber. We make Communion like a “wake” for the dead.

Early Christians feasted and celebrated the Cross as a victory. This “victory celebration” has been lost in many church Communions today.

“Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit’” (Luke 23:46). Jesus thus declared: “My task is complete. The price has been paid. Salvation is secured. It is finished! Take me now, Father.”

Lifted up was he to die. “It is finished” was his cry.
Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior!

The Apostle Paul is clear that the cross is a great triumph. “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15). So in worship we proclaim the victory:

This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
1 Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain,
whose blood set us free to be people of God.
2 Power, riches, wisdom and strength, and honor, blessing and glory are his.
3 Sing with all the people of God and join in the hymn of all creation.
4 Blessing, honor, glory and might be to God and the Lamb forever. Amen.

For the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign. Alleluia
– John W. Arthur (1970)

Next Issue: “Triumphant Worship: The Book of Revelation” [/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

Religious Liberty Vigilance –

America’s Experiment
of not having a State Church

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
– The First Amendment

“No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”
– Article 6, Clause 3 of the U. S. Constitution

As we commemorate the United Kingdom’s transition from Queen Elizabeth to King Charles, we have special opportunities to observe how the connection between church and state in that nation differs from here in the U.S.A.

Government and religion have been linked throughout human history. This was true under Israel’s scriptures and in the world’s other nations. The Book of Daniel, chapters 3 and 6 give clear examples of the challenges it posed for those who didn’t accept the idolatrous state religion centered on the king. Warning: A nation need not be “religious” to merge religion and government as seen in officially atheistic North Korea, which deifies its supreme ruler.

While the Archbishop of Canterbury is the highest cleric in the Church of England, the British monarch serves as Supreme Governor of the Church.
He or she approves the appointment of archbishops and other church leaders. In addition, 26 bishops serve in the House of Lords. Imagine having Harry Truman or Warren Harding or Andrew Jackson as supreme governors of the church in America!

After it gained independence, the United States chartered a different and historic course. No established national church or religious test for office. No law passed by Congress that hindered the free exercise of religion.
These two principles (embodied in the “Establishment” and “Free Exercise” clauses of the First Amendment) are not conflicting points that must be kept in tension; they are “friends” that together protect religious liberty.

My opinion is that when religion and state are too close, it’s often bad news for religion. The official religion becomes the handmaiden of the state; other faiths likely suffer exclusion and persecution.

There will always be tensions over religion. The Covid pandemic and expansive federal and state governments all challenge religious liberty.
To make matters worse, most citizens don’t even know what rights the First Amendment guarantees and a noisy minority would like to change things. The political far right and far left (especially) pose threats to religious thinking, speech and practices that do not accord with their agendas.

I believe religion, especially biblical Christianity, has thrived under the American system. Respecting and upholding this tradition should be the passion of every Christian. We don’t need a state church to further our mission. We only need the state to be “hands off” of religion.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1656698124270{background-color: #21e0d3 !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

The Need to Think of the “Common Good”

“If we focus on the ‘I’ and lose the ‘We,’ if we act on self-interest without a commitment to the common good, if we focus on self-esteem and lose our care for others, we will lose much else. Nations will cease to have societies and instead have identity groups. We will lose our feeling of collective responsibility and find in its place a culture of competitive victimhood. In an age of unprecedented possibilities, people will feel vulnerable and alone.”
– Jonathan Sacks, Morality—Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times (moral philosophy book)

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]One more time! Would you like to read the most recent (August 28) update of my essay on “The Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church” (an expansion of three essays in recent newsletters)? You may access the essay at: http://donaldshoemakerministries.com/blog/for-me-the-rapture-is-up-in-the-air/

Many have requested and received a PDF copy of the essay. If you wish to have one, please request it at: donaldshoemakerministries@verizon.net and I will send you a copy via email. I recommend the PDF version for reading, printing and sending.

Thank you for your interest!

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 55 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”September 2022 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing, Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Vin Scully
(1927 – 2022)

The “Voice of the Dodgers”

A devout Christian and a man of humility who exuded reason and fairness and brought human warmth to Los Angeles for almost 60 years.

He made Los Angeles a better place to live.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Mikhail Gorbachev
(1931 – 2022)

“The Last True Believer”

Gorbachev was the last leader of the Soviet Union who really believed in that ideology. It just needed some major reforms. But his reforms led to the end of the Union. With Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, he goes down as a consequential (for good) leader of the last half of the 20th Century.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Vin Scully leads the fans in singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”

“Goodnight, everybody!”

2016 – Dodger Baseball’s legendary announcer Vin Scully, 88, will sign off for the last time in a few days, after 67 seasons as “The Voice of the Dodgers.”

When Vinny turned 80 in 2007, sportswriter Paul Oberjuerge wrote of him. I was fascinated by how his characterizations of Scully could compare with ministers—my career. How do we preachers measure up to Vinny?

• Vinny has “relentless goodwill” and contagious love for the game. He makes every game seem important and convinces you of the same. How many times haven’t I heard him say late in the game, “Good ball game!” You actually don’t mind hearing him speak for three hours (no call here for three-hour sermons, but do we convey each sermon is important and worth a listen?).

• He is personable and free of pretense and ego. He is pleasant and reassuring. He is smart, but never comes across as a “know it all.”

• He makes his message personal. It’s as if you, the listener, are the important one and he has invited you to “pull up a chair” so he can tell you about the game. Do people feel such intimacy with our sermons?

• He doesn’t follow fads and never uses jargon. That’s a challenge to us preachers, in whose trade there’s always a new fad to talk about or new lingo to use to show others we know something they don’t.

• He can be critical without being irritating—like it really hurts him to report hooliganism at the park or a player’s excessive aggression.

• When you meet him you feel he likes you as much as you like him.

• He conveys a sincere feeling of gratitude to God while knowing that baseball’s good times won’t last forever. “If you want to make God smile, tell him your plans.”[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]

The breadth of this snapshot of the Universe is likened to having a grain of sand at arm’s length.

‘The new Webb telescope, in orbit around the sun 1 million miles above Earth and four times the distance to the moon, is able to penetrate the universe as nothing before it could do—taking us toward the beginning of time. To look into the sky is to look into the past. When I glimpse the sun, I don’t see the sun that “is” but as it “was” eight minutes ago.

The Bible asks and answers the question, “How can God, the Creator of such vastness, have any interest in me?” (Psalm 8 from the King James Version)

O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!
who hast set thy glory above the heavens…
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers,
the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels,
and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;
thou hast put all things under his feet…
How excellent is thy name in all the earth!

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Taking Our
Christian Baptism Seriously

“We were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.” – 1 Corinthians 12:13 NIV

This baptismal service (“yours truly” officiating) dates back to 2011. After considering many baptismal options, Grace Community Church in Seal Beach, California uses one of these: (1) this portable baptistry or (2) the Pacific Ocean one block away!

Our church practices a mode of immersion baptism known as “Trine Immersion” (a triple immersion). This mode is easily traceable back to the post-apostolic church (early 2nd Century and later). Thus, we need this kind of baptistry (though on rare occasions we have baptized by pouring water over the head of the candidate—which also is historically based).

Baptisms in the baptistry take place during a Sunday morning service. Baptisms in the ocean take place when the water is nice and warm.

Our church’s Elder Board once received a request that we OK a baptismal service in a backyard swimming pool, because the candidates for baptism didn’t want their baptism to identify them with the church. The Board wisely and rightly said NO! Read James Packer’s lesson excerpt:

Baptism has social implications. Involvement in the “body life” of mutual sympathy and service for Christ must be the rule for all the baptized.

Isolationism in church—sitting apart, not getting acquainted, dodging responsibility, and so on—is often condemned as denying the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. We need to see that it denies the meaning of baptism too, and just as drastically. Is that clear to us now? Are we making it a matter of conscience that by active love of our fellow-Christians we should show that we know what our baptism means?

– James Packer, Growing in Christ

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Message of the Month –

A Lesson from the Travails of “Hillsong”

My Jesus, my Savior
Lord, there is none like You
All of my days I want to praise
The wonders of your mighty love
My comfort, my shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath, all that I am
Never cease to worship you.

– “Shout to the Lord” by Darlene Zschech
Hillsong Worship (1994)

This song instantly became a favorite of mine! And here are just a few more Hillsongs that have ministered to me and to many others in worship services:

What a Beautiful Name
Cornerstone
Mighty to Save
This I Believe
Here I Am to Worship
How Great Is Our God
Mighty to Save

“Hillsong blessed believers with wonderful songs and stood as an example of service to its community” – Stephen Strang. But alas, the ministry known as “Hillsong,” which exploded from its start in Australia and became a wide-spread church phenomenon, has fallen on hard times.

Details are not hard to find and won’t be put forth here. Flamboyant pastors, autocratic leadership, powerful positions, multiple megachurches—all have their perils. I personally wouldn’t join any church body that calls its leader “Global Senior Pastor” nor a church ruled by an autocratic pastor rather than led by a qualified group of elders. *

The question I raise for now is this:“Should the failings of a movement and/or its leaders call for rejection of its music—worship music that has had a worldwide impact even greater than Hillsong itself?”

Some Christians think so, and I understand. It’s a form of the “guilt by association” argument. To sing the music is to think of the movement that produced it. To those persons, the singing is at the very least unedifying.

The church in Corinth asked the Apostle Paul about “foods sacrificed to idols.” How is it possible for Christians to please God by eating foods dedicated to idols? Paul goes to the heart of the matter (1 Corinthians 8:7): “Some are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled.”

I might paraphrase, “Some people think of Hillsong’s flaws every time they sing one of Hillsong’s songs—they can’t separate the two in their minds. Thus, singing such songs does not benefit them spiritually.”

I can remember (yes, I’m old enough!) when electric (amplified) guitars were a big issue in churches. How can a church allow these guitars into worship when they remind us of acid rock and various debaucheries? Should we teach on this to mature people’s thinking or should we create prohibitions to protect those who judge until the last old-timer goes to Heaven?

So what’s a church to do? Here are four issues to think about:

First, Paul calls the consciences of these people “weak.” For at least three reasons, a Christian shouldn’t want to manifest a weak conscience:

(1) A linkage between idols and food (or between Hillsong’s wrongs and songs) isn’t really there objectively and shouldn’t be there subjectively in our minds (1 Corinthians 8:1-8).
(2) A perpetually “weak” Christian limits his capacity to enjoy things in God’s world that God is actually able to bless (1 Timothy 4:4-5).
(3) A “weak” Christian is unable to follow Paul’s ministry flexibility of “being all things to all people”—weak with the weak, without law to those without law, etc. (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

But secondly, the church needs to be sensitive to those who can’t (yet!), in their own minds, separate the food from the idol (the music from its source).

Third, Christians shouldn’t be static in their minds. They should grow from “weak” thinking to “strong” thinking. The church that ministers to the “weak” only by protecting them and not by challenging them to grow in their thinking is failing its duty to them. If the people of a congregation have the same hang-ups year after year over issues where they should be free to decide rather than be bound by rules, that congregation is static in its thinking and not growing in the freedom of Christ.

Fourth, I don’t think Paul would tolerate having weak theology, with its condemnations and rules, control the church’s ministries and direction.

So my counsel to a congregation where some are troubled in conscience over Hillsong music might be (1) protect these people for a period of time, perhaps by temporarily not singing the songs in corporate worship (NOTE: a church with multiple worship services has an ideal situation for handling this—it can stop the use of certain songs in one service and continue them in others), (2) teach on Christian liberty and challenge people to follow the open thinking the Apostle Paul gives, and (3) set a goal on when singing the songs can resume.

For biblical instruction on the kind of issues raised, read Romans 14:1-15:13 and 1 Corinthians 8-10. Keep in mind that Romans and 1 Corinthians deal with very different issues but offer similar principles and solutions.

For helpful reading about the Hillsong controversies: “What’s behind the bad press about Hillsong?” (Chris Friend) and “Lessons from the Hillsong Controversy” (Stephen Strang) from the July-August 2022 issue of Charisma.

* A church can be led by a truly empowered (not a rubber stamp) elder board and at the same time have pastoral leadership with considerable authority. The key is that the authority is delegated by the board (usually in well-written job descriptions, but also in bylaws and board motions) and accountable to the board, which in turn fulfills its fiduciary duties to the church. The larger a church gets, the greater the need for delegated authority. Only very small churches can be governed by pure congregational government, and they will stay small if they insist on operating that way.

Even a quality elder board (which I think is more biblically supportable than other forms of church government) can’t do all the governing in a larger church. Its members will burn out if it does not delegate and allow qualified and accountable individuals to lead. The elders should decide major issues and big expenditures and pastors and other staff should decide week-to-week, month-to-month and even year-long matters. For an excellent study of church governance: Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology (2nd edition) pp. 1114-1175.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

“Ceremonies Sent from God that Help Us Worship”
– 7th Essay on Worship for 2022

Human beings are incurably ceremonial, and that’s fine!

At the Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach, California I offered a prayer at the changing of the command. I prayed to dedicate a new bridge and a new firehouse and, yes, a parking structure for the LA County Courthouse in Long Beach. All these events were ceremonies. I even prepared and led a ceremony once for the cleansing of a hotel room where the last guest had killed himself!

And we have religious ceremonies! We have weddings, funerals and memorials, baby dedications, dedications of new buildings and ministries.

Scripture itself teaches certain ceremonies. Passover, Pentecost and the Day of Atonement are featured ceremonies in the Old Testament. The New Testament speaks of anointing the sick with oil (James 5:14-16), washing the feet of Jesus’ disciples (John 13:1-17), and laying on of hands for Spirit empowerment (1 Timothy 4:14) or special ministry (Acts 13:3).

But let’s focus on two highly important ceremonies God has given to the church and provided guidance in our doing of them—BAPTISM and COMMUNION (the Eucharist). Here are 10 Facts for us to know and heed:

Fact #1 – Baptism and Communion may be called either “ORDINANCES” or “SACRAMENTS.”

What is a “Sacrament”?
A holy ordinance instituted by Christ; wherein, by sensible signs, Christ and the benefits of the new covenant, are represented, sealed, and applied to believers. (Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q&A 92)

I can use either word “ordinance” (something ordered by the Lord) or “sacrament.“ I prefer “sacrament” because (1) I believe God is uniquely present and graciously ministering to us in these rituals, and (2) I think both baptism and Communion have been wrongly minimized in many churches. In the Sacraments, God takes ordinary practices and leads us to extraordinary truths and benefits.

Fact #2 – Sacraments may be explained with three words:

“SYMBOL” – represents a saving work of God. (But never should we think of Baptism and Communion as “just symbols” or “only symbols.”)
“SIGN” – points to a saving work of God. (Without the sign, you may pass over it and miss it)
“SEAL” – confirms the saving work of God. (Like a handshake seals the deal)

Fact #3 – The Sacraments have three features: the OUTWARD SIGN, the INWARD REALITY, and the WORD of GOD (“Words of Institution”) that by the Spirit brings the sign and the reality together into a DIVINE EVENT.

What makes Baptism different from taking a dip in the pool?
Or Communion different from eating food samples at Costco?

Answer: the Word of God, which connects the outward sign to the inward reality. “I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” or “This is my body, given for you” and “This is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many.”

Fact #4 – The Sacraments give a BOOST to our FAITH—God seals his promises to us through visible signs.

With the disciples, we need to say to Jesus, “Lord, increase our faith!” Admit it—our faith often needs a crutch! God understands the brittleness of our faith. So, through signs that we hear, see, feel, smell, and taste, God lifts our hearts to spiritual realities so we might perceive them by faith.

Fact #5 – The Sacraments should be seen as “means of grace” – avenues whereby God extends his grace to us. But don’t make an error in understanding this.

Error #1 – There are no other “means of grace.”

In his excellent Systematic Theology, Wayne Grudem explains that God uses many ways to give more grace to Christians in addition to baptism and communion: teaching of the Word, prayer for one another, worship, discipline, giving, spiritual gifts, fellowship, evangelism, ministry to one another.

Error #2 – They are automatic and effective, even if faith is absent.

No, Baptism is not like a car wash, and Communion is not like a vaccine.

Error #3 – Baptism and Communion are good works we do for God.

No, they are good works God does for us. Just as we receive the gift of Christ, so we receive baptism and receive Jesus’ body and blood. God in his sovereign grace has chosen to bestow spiritual benefits on us through tangible signs he has designed to bless and enrich our faith.

Fact #6 – The Sacraments can be signs of JUDGMENT instead of signs of grace (I Corinthians 11:27-32).

The Corinthian Church, Paul’s spiritual problem child, managed even to mess up Communion by turning its Love Feasts into times of selfish gluttony and drunkenness. So Paul warned the church of God’s discipline.

Abuse of Communion can bring discipline from God. It is no ordinary table that we are approaching.

Today Roman Catholic leaders who would deny the Eucharist to Catholics who actively promote abortion rights are accused of “weaponizing” the Eucharist. In reality, they are mercifully warning of God’s judgment.

Fact #7 – The Sacraments connect us to the PAST (I Corinthians 11:26).

Staying in touch with our spiritual roots is becoming a lost practice. Baptism and Communion help correct that. In baptism we connect with our Lord’s baptism, obedient life and suffering. In Communion, Jesus said, “This do in remembrance of me” (1 Corinthians 11:26). The Communion Table is a vivid reminder, a spiritual time machine, that sets us before the Cross to ponder Jesus’ sacrifice and its meaning to us.

Fact #8 – The Sacraments connect us to CHRIST and to his CHURCH
(I Corinthians 12:13; 10:17).

Baptism is the usual entryway into the life of the church. “By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body…” (1 Corinthians 12:13).

Communion binds us together by the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 10:17). I prefer to express this with a “common loaf” if at all possible. Breaking bread with my brother or sister is not privatistic like eating a tiny morsel of bread with my eyes closed can be.

Fact #9 – Baptism is our Sacrament of Initiation. Communion is our Sacrament of Continuation.

Baptism is God’s appointed sacrament to launch us on the road as a disciple of Christ. It is “once for all” – never to be repeated. We start the journey once.

Communion is our continuing sacrament of renewed fellowship with Christ in the presence of one another. When we fall off the spiritual pathway and get back on, we don’t return to the beginning. We continue at the Lord’s Table.

New Christians should quickly move on from baptism to nurture the good habits that build our relationship with a Christian community (Acts 2:41-42). This includes devoting ourselves to “the breaking of the bread.”

As a “continuing sacrament,” Communion should be frequent, even weekly.

Fact #10 – The Sacraments point us to the FUTURE—our complete salvation (Mark 14:22-25).

Our baptism initiates our citizenship in the coming Kingdom. By it we take our “oath of citizenship” as we call on the Lord (Acts 22:16; Romans 10:9-10).

Jesus linked Communion with the future: “I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God” (Mark 14:23-25).

I urge us all to elevate our understanding of the Sacraments—God’s enabling, uplifting gifts to his church. I pray our worship will always be enhanced whenever we rejoice with those who are baptized and partake at the Lord’s Table with all the Faithful.

Next Issue: “Worship Beneath the Cross of Jesus”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Religious Liberty Vigilance –
A Good Year in Court for Religious Liberty

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
—The First Amendment

In its session that ended in June the U.S. Supreme Court rendered several decisions that resonate with First Amendment guarantees.

Shurtleff v. Boston – the court ruled unanimously that the City of Boston was wrong in banning the flying of a Christian flag on a pole that was otherwise available to other community groups for flying a variety of flags. I found it interesting that this decision was opposed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State but supported by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Retiring Justice Stephen Breyer wrote, “When the government encourages diverse expression — say, by creating a forum for debate — the First Amendment prevents it from discriminating against speakers based on their viewpoint.” 

Ramirez v. Collier – the court ruled 8-1 that a convicted murderer had the right to have his pastor present to place his hands on him and pray out loud at the time of execution.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that there has been a long history of allowing pastors to deliver prayers at executions and “lay hands” on the individual being executed. He also noted that Texas had not shown a compelling state interest for prohibiting the prayer (as required by the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act that protects the religious rights of prisoners).

Carson v. Makin – the court ruled 6-3 that the State of Maine violated the Constitution by preventing families from using state aid to send children to religious schools while it supplied aid for children to attend other private schools.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “Maine’s ‘nonsectarian’ requirement for its otherwise generally available tuition assistance payments violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment.”

Kennedy v. Bremerton School District – the court affirmed 6-3 the right of Coach Joseph Kennedy to offer personal prayer at the 50-yard line after a game. The court did not find anything coercive about his action that would make players feel compelled to pray.

Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “That the First Amendment doubly protects religious speech is no accident. It is a natural outgrowth of the framers’ distrust of government attempts to regulate religion and suppress dissent.”

In this case, I’ve imagined the team-building practice of a coach joining the players once a week for a lunch in the school cafeteria. The coach briefly bows his head and prays silently before eating lunch (a common biblical practice). Would the “religion police” come down on this coach for creating a scene that might make non-religious students feel uncomfortable or might compel others to pray who otherwise wouldn’t have done so?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1656698124270{background-color: #21e0d3 !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

Civility in Difficult Times

“People who cannot restrain their baser instincts, who cannot treat one another with civility, are not capable of self-government … without virtue, a society can be ruled only by fear, a truth that tyrants know all to well.” — Charles Colson

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A Very Under-Reported Massacre

It was barely a blip on the news in America. On Pentecost Sunday (June 5) two gunmen entered worship services at St. Francis Catholic Church in the town of Owo in southwestern Nigeria.

BBC News reported that at least 50 bodies had been taken to two hospitals in the town.

In May 2022, a young Nigerian Christian woman was beaten to death by a mob for posting the message “Jesus Christ is the greatest. He helped me pass my exams.” Her words were to some an offence punishable by death.

“Open Doors USA,” an organization that tracks religious persecution, has documented the killing of 4650 Christians in Nigeria in 2021.

[Most of this information comes from “The Christian Martyrs of Nigeria,” in The Wall Street Journal (June 8, 2022). The writer, David Curry, is President of “Open Doors USA” and also is a member of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.]

Attacks on pro-life counseling centers have been in the news since the U.S. Supreme Court returned the debate over abortion laws back to the states.

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Would you like to read the most recent (August 28) update of my essay on “The Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church” (an expansion of three essays in recent newsletters)? You may access the essay at:

For Me The “Rapture” Is Up in the Air!

If you would like a PDF copy of the essay, please request it at: donaldshoemakerministries@verizon.net and I will send you a copy via email. I recommend the PDF version for reading, printing and sending.

Thank you for your interest!

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 55 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row]

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”949″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”“A Piece of My Mind”” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:50px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal”][vc_custom_heading text=”July-August 2022 Newsletter” font_container=”tag:h1|font_size:30px|text_align:center|color:%232633ef” google_fonts=”font_family:Bitter%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2/3″][vc_column_text]

Advancing Christian Faith and Values,
Defending Religious Liberty for All,
Supporting Civility and the Common Good
through Preaching, Teaching, Writing, Activism and Reasoned Conversations

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”1304″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1598373738095{border-radius: 3px !important;}”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
they sing among the branches.
All creatures look to you
to give them their food at the proper time.
– Psalm 104:12, 27

One of the many hummingbirds who visit our backyard feeders decided to build a nest right outside our bedroom window. We’ve enjoyed watching the mother sitting over two eggs in the nest she made (the nest is about 1-1/2” across and the eggs were the size of pinto beans). They hatched and then we’d see mother dutifully feeding two very tiny chicks.

Not tiny for long. Mother kept up the feeding and the two birds would stand at the edge of the nest flapping their rapid wings. They flew off on June 6 and 7, about a month after the eggs were laid.[/vc_column_text][vc_empty_space][vc_column_text]Back the Badge
“Blessed are those who maintain justice.” – Psalm 106:3

Always “On Call”

In the Bible we read a word of advice from the Apostle Paul to his young colleague Timothy: “Be prepared in season, out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2).

The words have broad application beyond advice to Christian ministers who find ourselves called on suddenly when not “on the job.” Emergency responders such as firefighters and police officers are especially called to be “prepared in season, out of season.”

The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics begins with “As a Law Enforcement Officer my fundamental duty is to serve; to safeguard lives…” (and much more). The officer promises to “be constantly mindful of the welfare of others.” Such commitments know no “punch clock” timing.

Picture Courtesy of
The Orange County Register

May 21, 2021 – Sgt. Joe Garcia of the Seal Beach CA Police Department was driving the freeway on his day off, heading toward a park to do some mountain biking. When traffic slowed to a crawl on the freeway, he saw the reason why. A woman and her 6-year-old son—victims of “road rage”—were on the freeway shoulder, the son with a gunshot wound in his back.

Sgt. Garcia laid the boy on a blanket and administered CPR until paramedics arrived. Upon arriving at the hospital several miles away, Sgt. Garcia learned the child had died. He would later say, “Once I saw Aiden [the boy’s name] I immediately thought it was my boy” who turned five years old the same day. When he heard Aiden didn’t make it, “I pulled over and broke down, because I just kept saying in my head this mom is now without her son.”

This past May the American Red Cross of Orange County (CA) rightfully honored Sgt. Garcia with the “First Responder Hero Award.”

It might be said that Sgt. Garcia’s quick response that day is what any dedicated officer would do. True. But this doesn’t at all make the trauma routine. An excellent officer’s training will kick in when he or she is confronted with a life-threatening emergency. But these officers don’t leave their humanity behind.

[Details of the incident and award are from The Orange County Register, May 21, 2022.]

A PERSONAL NOTE: I was a young pastor in the mid-1970’s when our home phone rang in the middle of the night. It was a distraught father calling to tell me his teen son had just died from an accidental gunshot wound. I went to the boy’s grandparent’s home to give them the tragic news. Then I drove to the regional hospital, arriving just as the family was about to view the boy’s body.

After some hours I returned home. I stood in the doorway of my 4-year old daughter’s bedroom watching her sleep so peacefully. I was thankful to God for my family’s safety and struck by the fragility of life at the same time. That night will never leave my mind.

What Key Identification Info Is Missing Here?
An on-line news source put out this alert. What’s missing from it?

SEAL BEACH, CA — The Seal Beach Police Department is asking for the public’s help in finding the suspects in an armed robbery at a T-Mobile store on Tuesday [May 10, 2022].

One suspect was described as a man in his late 20s, about 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds. He was wearing a black jacket with dark jeans, Seal Beach police said.

A second suspect was described as a man in his late 20s, about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighing 160 pounds. Police said he was wearing a gray jacket with gray sweatpants.

Gender, clothing, approximate height, weight and age—it’s all there.
Wouldn’t it be good public service to give the racial IDs of the suspects?
This detail was available and vital. But would it be “incorrect” to report it?

A Meaningful Prayer for a Church and a Hurting World
Men and women from the congregation offer prayers to open our church services. I thought this prayer given June 12 was especially excellent. I share it slightly abbreviated. Thanks to Andreas Gratopp, who gave me the text.

Dear Heavenly Father, we are grateful that You bless this place and this gathering with Your presence. We are comforted to be able to continue returning to Your house to listen to the good news, to your Gospel.

As we look forward to summer… remind us to celebrate and be thankful for the fruits and freedoms that this Nation provides. We thank You Lord, for bestowing Your justice, Your mercy and Your faithfulness to all that call this land home.

Father, please be with our brothers and sisters that are suffering here and around this fragile earth. We ask that You guide them in their fight for justice, for mercy and for peace in their respective lives. Please lift up their faces, to be able see Your grace. Place your loving hand on burdened shoulders and lighten their load…

We turn to You with our eyes open, with our ears trained to listen, with our voices ready to sing and pray, and with our hearts prepared to receive Your Son. Lord, we thank you for the Spirit that surrounds us and encourages us to be faithful. Whatever our circumstance, we look up to You and we are grateful to know that Your love, Your gospel, is always available to us.

All of these things we ask and pray for in Jesus’ name. Amen!

Picture: Outdoor 9:30 a.m. service of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach, CA
(June 26, 2022). Services at 8:00 and 11:00 a.m. are held indoors in the church sanctuary. The outdoor option is popular and has remained even after Covid restrictions were lifted for indoor gatherings.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Learning Worship from the First Christians
– 6th Essay on Worship for 2022
“[Jesus] read the Old Testament. It’s strange that many Christians don’t read what Jesus read.”
– Dennis Prager
Christians sometimes romanticize the Early Church. “Why can’t we be like the Early Church, those first Christians?” Some churches and denominations actually stress the importance of duplicating the Early Church, in organization or worship or spiritual gifts.

But if we strive to be like the Early Church we can expect some undesirable things: controversies, excluding people who should be let in, letting in people who should be excluded, false doctrine, worship abuses and legalism.

Still, we can learn a lot by seeing how the Early Church worshiped. The worship patterns of the Early Church are fascinating and helpful.

God does not require that we Xerox the worship of the Early Church and do it exactly that way. But we should consider patterns in Early Church worship and how to apply them to our own experience, so we might worship in a more God-pleasing way.

We should follow the spirit of what we learn and, in accord with our Christian freedom, employ what will serve the tasks of our modern church the best.

Three Biblical PRECEDENTS for Worship
After the birth of the Christian Church on the Day of Pentecost (30 AD?), worship patterns slowly emerged. Early Christian worship didn’t just start from “scratch.” Some things were new, needing to be developed. But three key features were quite old, simply needing to be appreciated and used.

First, the Early Church was never without a BIBLE (Holy Scripture).

It already had what Christians call “The Old Testament”—a body of literature Paul would describe as “inspired of God and profitable…” (2 Timothy 3:15-17). They had words from God that could light their pathway in worship and more.

Second, the Early Church was never without a HYMNBOOK.

It already possessed The Psalms. Some traditions in the Protestant Reformation have said we should ONLY sing the Psalms. That’s legalistic. Isaac Watts (1674-1748), “The Father of English Hymnody,” wrote 800 songs, many based on the Psalms (“O God Our Help in Ages Past” and “Give to Our God Immortal Praise”), but also songs not from the Psalms (“Jesus Shall Reign” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”). I’m glad he “broke the mold.”

Still, to ignore or minimize this rich, inspired hymnbook is poverty. I mention again that the “Jesus Movement” of the 1960’s and 70’s restored Psalm-singing to the church. If you are old enough to remember, think how little Psalm-singing took place before that movement.

Third, the Early Church was never without a TRADITION.

This “tradition” was the worship of the Jewish synagogue (read Luke 4:14-21). The synagogue service had these elements (note: we know more about worship details of the 2nd and 3rd centuries than we do of the 1st century):
• The Confession (Deuteronomy 6:4 – “the Lord is one.”)
• The Prayers
• The Readings (from the Law and Prophets)
• The Instruction from the scriptures
• The Benediction

Worship in the synagogue was “God-centered” and Jesus shared in it. Here is an important word on Jesus’ worship habits: “On the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom” (Luke 4:16).

Jesus, our example, nurtured faithful and meaningful worship habits. In this spirit, we are instructed not to forsake our own “gathering together” (Hebrews 10:25). Do you remember the question, “WWJD?” (“What Would Jesus Do?”)? Jesus would be in a worship gathering on The Lord’s Day.

A Biblical PATTERN for Worship (Acts 2:42)

Since first discovering it I have always encouraged Christians (especially new believers) to develop the pattern for worship found in Acts 2:42. Once baptized, these new believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to [the] prayers.”

1. The Apostles’ Doctrine – This is the teaching of those chosen and taught by Jesus to unfold the meaning of his life and death and to establish his followers in the Faith. Now this teaching is found in the New Testament. It is also well summarized in the historic creeds we may recite in church.

“The Apostles’ Doctrine” will keep us from heresy (which contradicts and destroys the church’s message) and from market-driven or politics-driven trendy topics (which water down or ignore the church’s message).

2. The Fellowship – Regular “getting together” to help with needs and share warmth, rejoicing and tears. This protects us from unhealthy spiritual individualism
(“I come to the garden alone…”). Biblical fellowship is well expressed in the familiar hymn:

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.

We share each other’s woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

3. The Breaking of [The] Bread– This is more than “breaking bread” as a sign of friendship and togetherness. There is a definite article (“the”) before “bread.” It very likely refers to “the Bread” of the Lord’s Table, the Communion Bread. This divine tradition was established very quickly in the life of the Early Church (1 Corinthians 11:23-24 NIV): “The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’”

Frequent receiving of “Communion” keeps our thoughts Cross-centered and renews our intimate togetherness with Jesus, the One crucified for us.

4. The Prayers– Meaningful prayer is often spontaneous. Here though the reference is probably to planned or ritual prayers. Rather than criticizing this as empty ritualism (which it can be, but our spontaneous prayers can be empty and torturous to others as well!) we can use ritual prayers helpfully.

The best prayer ritual we can ever have is the frequent recitation of “The Lord’s Prayer” Jesus gave us to pray. We should also pray the Psalms.

Churches always face the pressure to be conformed to the world rather than transformed by the Word. We ask people what they want and make worship “man-centered.” Instead, we should seek out what God wants and make worship “God-centered.” * We demand that the church meet our needs. Instead, we should ask, “What needs did God create the church to meet?”

If our worship is centered on God, strengthening to believers, sensitive to non-believers, and meeting the needs God equipped it to meet, then we will have good worship. Godly-minded people will be pleased. Most of all, God will be pleased. All this we learn from the worship of the earliest Christians.

I love to live in Your house, O Lord.
I love to sit here at Your feet,
And let Your words be the food I eat.
The food I eat.

I love to live in Your house, O Lord,
to dine at the table with my King.
And give to You the praise I bring.
The praise I bring.
– “The House of the Lord” by Glen Veenstra

* Churches are free to “flex” on morally-neutral features of worship (kinds of instrumentation, choirs, praise teams, style of sermon delivery, etc.) for the greater benefit of those present. “Being all things to all people” can be difficult if the church has multiple kinds of people attending with different preferences. Paul doesn’t teach that oldsters and the “weak” should control things (see 1 Corinthians 9:19-23), nor does he permit legalism to prevail (Galatians 2:11-15).

Next Issue: “Ceremonies Sent from God that Help Us Worship”[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]This Independence Day – Appreciate American Leaders Who Excelled, Moral Shortcomings and All

The Jefferson Memorial

“God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever. Commerce between master and slave is despotism. Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate than that these people are to be free.”
– Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia”

The City of Long Beach is pondering changing the name of a park from “Lincoln Park” to a name of interest to Native Americans. OK, maybe the park is on land with a history many of us don’t know. If the change is made, I hope “Lincoln Park” can find a place to bear its name somewhere else. Don’t judge an imperfect Lincoln in a way that cancels his magisterial accomplishments.

Thomas Jefferson was not a perfect man. Will the perfect person please stand, that we might pay you honor? His slavery practices fell well short of his proclamations on slavery. To put it another way, though he was a sinner who kept slaves, Jefferson set forth principles bigger than he was—principles that helped sow the seeds of abolition. This must not be forgotten.

Our nation’s pacesetters need to be evaluated by the mores and standards of their own generations, not by “righteous people” who come along later— who’ve had more of a chance to learn and grow from the mistakes of the past.

We honor President Franklin D. Roosevelt but we must not forget his evil actions against innocent Japanese-Americans. Eighty years ago he signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the War Relocation Authority, which led to placing 120,000 West Coast Japanese-Americans in relocation camps.
Should we “correct” our history and close his monument in Washington, DC?
No, but we must tell the story and never forget his great wrong.

Likewise, California’s attorney general (and later its very popular governor) Earl Warren* was a strong supporter of the relocation camps and urged the president on. On the way up the coast on Highway 101, just past Santa Barbara, we pass the Earl Warren Showgrounds. Should this be renamed and his name cancelled? No, but his complicity in the interning of American citizens of Japanese descent must be remembered.

* See: Greg Robinson, By Order of the President, pp. 96, 101, 102, 126. Most Americans today remember Earl Warren as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1953 to 1969, whose appointment President Eisenhower later called “the biggest damn-fool mistake I ever made.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner css=”.vc_custom_1656698124270{background-color: #21e0d3 !important;}”][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]

Roe v. Wade Overturned by U.S. Supreme Court
Dobbs v. Jackson (June 24, 2023)

Here are two important quotes giving (1) a SUMMARY of the decision, and
(2) the LIMITATION of the decision to the abortion issue alone.

(SUMMARY) “We therefore hold that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion. Roe and Casey must be overruled, and the authority to regulate abortion must be returned to the people and their elected representatives.” [page 69]

(LIMITATION) “…the Solicitor General suggests that overruling those decisions would ‘threaten the Court’s precedents holding that the Due Process Clause protects other rights.’”
“…to ensure that our decision is not misunderstood or mischaracterized, we emphasize that our decision concerns the constitutional right to abortion and no other right. Nothing in this opinion should be understood to cast doubt
on precedents that do not concern abortion.” [page 66]

The decision, concurrences and dissent are well worth a read (you may skip the long syllabus and go straight to the decision).
www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]For Me, The “Rapture” Is Up in the Air!
By Donald Shoemaker
PART THREE (of 3): The Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church – Some Helpful Reflections

In “Part One” ” I shared my movement away from a doctrinaire “Pre-tribulation Rapture” view toward (1) greater openness on the subject and (2) the observation that this subject is not a “Truth of the First Order” where we speak with high certainty. Rather, it is a “level three” or “level four” teaching, which carries less certitude and shouldn’t divide us.

In “Part Two” ” we saw how Paul’s letters to the Thessalonian Christians contain an amazingly large amount of teaching on the Second Coming of Jesus and also contain a surprisingly small amount of teaching on the Rapture. This is significant all the more in light of the fact that the Rapture is likely taught nowhere else in the Bible.

We looked at the seven references in 1 and 2 Thessalonians to the Second Coming and the Rapture. My conclusion from my study: These texts together support or lean toward the idea of the Second Coming being one comprehensive event, not “Events A and B.”

Now for “Part Three” I want to discuss a number of issues that relate to the Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church.

1. Why the current disinterest in Bible Prophecy?
When I was a young Christian in the 1960’s I was concerned that a general disinterest in Bible prophecy seemed to be settling into evangelical churches and ministries. This was a BIG change from the 1950’s, when Bible Prophecy was a huge teaching theme. Trends in youth ministry pointed us to focus on problems of this world and our role in changing things. Prophecy took a back seat, for it was seen as a hindrance to this-world ministries.

Everything changed dramatically again with the arrival of The Jesus Movement in the late 1960’s. Many of the “Hippies” who were attracted to The Jesus Movement were kind of “doomsday” people to begin with (the singer Barry McGuire, who converted to Jesus, was already known in the entertainment world for his song “Eve of Destruction”).

The Jesus Movement was highly influenced by the Calvary Chapel churches that grew from it and by Hal Lindsey (author of The Late Great Planet Earth). Calvary Chapels were strongly into Bible Prophecy and were (and still are) strong proponents of the “Pre-Trib Rapture.” Youthful Christians were taught that the Rapture could happen at any moment. Youthful songwriters produced songs on prophecy themes (like Larry Norman’s pre-trib song “I Wish We’d All Been Ready”). The youth of my own congregation in Long Beach, California started a regular “Jesus Meeting” gathering known as “Last Generation.”

The popular film “A Thief in the Night” promoted a pre-tribulation rapture. San Diego-based pastor and author Tim LaHaye, whom TIME Magazine named one of the 25 most influential evangelicals in America, produced the immensely popular “Left Behind” series of 12 books that depicted a world in turmoil after the sudden pre-trib rapture of the saints.

Youth-driven interest in prophecy topics had never been greater, I’m quite sure.

Now today we have lapsed back into disinterest in Bible prophecy. One writer said you have to be over 50 to be interested (all those Jesus People are now well over 50!). This could be blamed on the excesses and extremes of some prophecy teaching. Or to the “this-world” orientation of a lot of teaching and ministries today (including efforts to change society). Or simply to a blind spot in our attention to one of the Bible’s key themes.

Whatever the reasons, the current disinterest is nothing new. “I’ve seen it all before!” The Church needs to be concerned about it and reform itself by a healthy restoration of Bible Prophecy.

2. Can even good teaching on Bible Prophecy lead to bad behavior?
Let’s stipulate: Bad theology leads to bad behavior. But can good teaching lead some to wrong behavior. This seemed to be the case in Thessalonica, when Paul wrote his two letters to the church there.

That church seemed remarkably free of bad thinking and bad living *. Still, Paul makes reference to some bad behavior which might well be linked to the teachings on prophecy the church had learned:

We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat. (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12 NIV)

Here’s the error: Instead of minding their own business they started minding the business of others. Idleness creates unhealthy dependence and nosy busybodies. Paul’s strong words of solution were “be quiet, earn your own bread. And if you won’t work, then you don’t eat!” He gives the practice of his own missionary team as an example to follow: “We worked hard among you and didn’t ask you for anything” (verses 7-8).

Unfortunately, even truthful teaching about Jesus’ second coming can lead to wrong application of the truth if guidance on good behavior isn’t given. Trust in the return of the Lord should lead to energetic service and devotion to everyday duties. It must not lead to idleness and dependency. Or to the “cultural withdrawal” we sometimes see today.

A church once began near my home. The pastor announced in the local newspaper that his new church wouldn’t own any buildings because Jesus was coming soon. But Jesus didn’t come immediately and in time some couples in his congregation wanted to get married.
How does a pastor handle weddings if his congregation has no place of their own to meet? Well, why not go ask other churches if they could use their church building for wedding ceremonies? See the dependency? Update: that church now owns its own building!

We must be sure to provide example after example of the godly living that must proceed from good prophetic teaching, lest listeners misapply the teaching and go astray.

[ * Paul also identifies some apparent sexual misbehavior in this congregation, but doesn’t seem to link it to prophetic teachings. Rather, to a failure to honor the human body as we should (1 Thessalonians 3:3-8).]

3. Arguments for a Pre-tribulation Rapture based on biblical issues, not biblical texts

• An imminent “Rapture”?
In his book The Rapture Question John Walvoord stated that the Rapture is not explicitly taught in Scripture (p. 148 in 1957 edition, deleted in later printings). This is not a disproof in itself, but acknowledges that the doctrine is essentially rationalized from other topics *.

One rationalization is the “imminence” issue—an “any moment” return of Christ. If the Rapture is “imminent,” then no signs—certainly not the Tribulation—can precede it. It is further argued that an “imminent rapture” is a stimulus for godly living, and this stimulus is lost without an imminent rapture.

There are warnings in scripture about the Lord’s sudden, unexpected return that will catch many unprepared. “Keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42). However the reality is that such warnings are intended to prepare people for the post-tribulational Second Coming (24:30), not a rapture seven years earlier. Indeed, Jesus alerts his followers to look for signs of this “imminent” event and to be prepared, because its exact timing is unknown. Combined with this is Jesus’ word that “for the sake of the elect” the final days of stress before his return will be shortened (Matthew 24:22). How much, we’re not told. **

Here’s a challenge: before us are two devout Christians. One believes the Rapture could happen at any moment. The other Christian’s prophetic system teaches that certain events will precede the Rapture. Show me that the first person’s prophetic outlook will make him any more godly, any more “ready” for the Lord’s return than the other. I doubt you can. Hopefully, our commitment to pleasing our Lord goes deeper than where Jesus’ coming for his saints is placed on the prophecy chart hanging on some wall at church.

* It’s true that doctrines can be rationalized from biblical statements that don’t teach it explicitly. The Trinity is a prime example. But the many texts that would lead to a reasoned doctrine of the Trinity are quite clear (the deity of Christ, for example, in John 1:1 and Philippians 2:5-11).

** Anyone who has tried to interpret Matthew 24 and related texts knows how Jesus’ words on the destruction of the Temple (70 AD) and his Second Coming are intermingled and is aware of how difficult this makes our understanding of many specific verses.

• Sharp distinction between Israel and the Church?
The system of interpretation known as “Dispensationalism” distinguishes Israel and the church (and God’s promises to each). The argument here is that God will conclude his dealings with the Church (by rapturing it) before he resumes his favored dealings with Israel. Richard Mayhue stated that “nowhere in Scripture is it taught that the Church and Israel would coexist as the centers for God’s redemptive message and yet remain mutually exclusive.”

Some writers are adamant, insisting that God’s ministry to the Church must end before he resumes his ministry with Israel.

I call this insistence the notion that God can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. Why can’t God multi-task if it fits his purposes?

Others say the non-congruence of these two works of God is a free decision by God (which fits our understanding of God’s freedom better).

This is an example of where new perspectives on Dispensationalism are modifying that system. A pre-tribulation rapture once thought to be a necessary implication of this system is no longer seen as such. Note some statements by Robert Saucy (pages 8-9 and 26-27 in The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism):

While most dispensationalists probably hold to a pretribulation rapture of the church as being in certain respects more harmonious with dispensationalism in general, many would not desire to make this a determining touchstone of dispensationalism today.

Saucy argued for a “mediating position”: (1) a natural understanding of the prophetic Scriptures that appear to assign a significant role to the nation Israel in the future is retained; (2) God’s program is viewed as unified within history. A radical discontinuity between the present church age and the kingdom promises to Israel is denied.

This is a big debate. The only point I make here is that a particular position on the timing of the Rapture should not be inferred from a conclusion on how God can or must deal with Israel and the Church.

• Exemption from God’s judgments poured out during the Tribulation
I noted in “Part Two” of this 3-part study that it is hard to contemplate the presence of the saints on earth during a time of God’s intense worldwide outpouring of his wrath as it seems to be described in Revelation 16. This leads some to support a “pre-wrath rapture” theory. Others look to the plagues on Egypt (Exodus 7-11) as evidence that God can protect his chosen ones while his wrath is expressed all around. They note the seal of protection on the 144,000 during the Tribulation as an example (Revelation 7:1-8). Others hesitate to impose a worldwide notion on texts that may not intend such a perspective (e.g., Luke 2:1).

Still others would spiritualize at least some of the plagues. I’m fascinated by the views of Dwight Pentecost (a strong “literal meaning” advocate for understanding prophecy texts). He says the outpouring of God’s wrath in the “vial” judgments of Revelation 16 have reference to unbelievers and special reference to the Beast [Antichrist] and his followers. He goes further and spiritualizes at least some of these plagues. A judgment on the “seas” refers to spiritual death; one on “rivers” and “fountains of life” shows that the Beast is unable to nourish and sustain life. Judgment on the sun speaks of “spiritual blindness” (Things to Come, pp. 363-64).

The issue I identify remains but has possible solutions. And it definitely does not require a rapture that would exempt Christians from the Tribulation and its persecutions.

4. Two examples of change from a strict Pre-tribulation Rapture position

The pre-tribulation rapture position had its rise with the Plymouth Brethren and the Bible Conference movements of the 19th century. Dispensationalism got a huge boost in the U.S. from the great popularity of The Scofield Reference Bible.

One reference to the pre-tribulation rapture in The Scofield Reference Bible is clear (commenting on the “restrainer” of 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7 being the Holy Spirit in the Church, p. 1272). Scofield’s main impact is his sharp distinction between scriptures referring to Israel and the Church. For example, he would hold that the prophecies in the Synoptic Gospels have little to say directly to the Church.

The pre-tribulation rapture found its way into many doctrinal statements of Dispensational flavor in the first half of the 20th century. It also became popular in the new Pentecostal movement, which was “end times” focused. Many thought it was a bulwark against liberalism. Insist on this doctrine and liberalism will never take root!

The Bible Institute of Los Angeles (which morphed into Biola University, where I once taught) has a clearly mainstream evangelical doctrinal statement (1912) that doesn’t get into the rapture issue. However, a number of “Teaching Positions” were created over the years to clarify the doctrinal statement. In reality, some positions added to the school’s doctrines rather than just clarifying them.

Biola’s teaching position on the Rapture added to the doctrinal statement as it said:
“The Scriptures are to be interpreted according to dispensational distinctive with the conviction that the return of the Lord for His Church will be premillennial, before the Tribulation, and that the millennium is to be the last of the dispensations” [italics mine].

As a biblical studies professor, I found this position to be a confining limitation on freedom of inquiry on an issue over which evangelicals should be able to hold various positions without putting themselves outside the “Bible-believing” camp.

Biola’s current position, however, is quite different: “Before these millennial events, the believers will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (I Thess. 4:13-17). The time of this ‘rapture’ is unknown, and thus believers are to live constantly watchful and ready.” Yes!

Likewise, my own denomination (The Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, now commonly known as “The Charis Fellowship”) adopted a clear pre-tribulation rapture position in its 1969 doctrinal statement:

SECOND COMING. The personal, visible, and imminent return of Christ to remove His church from the earth (1 Thess. 4:16-17) before the tribulation (1 Thess. 1:10; Rev. 3:10), and afterward to descend with the Church to establish His millennial kingdom upon the earth (Rev. 19:11-20:6). [Italics mine]

This reflected a move away from the simple statement on eschatology in The Message of the Brethren Ministry” (1921):

The personal and visible return of our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the glorious goal for which we are taught to watch, wait and pray.

The change represented a doctrinal “tightening” viewed by many as a progressive step coming from deeper insight into scripture. But not all of us were content!

In the year 2000 I wrote an article titled “Grace Brethren Eschatology: Where Should Our Fellowship Go?” in Sharpening One Another, a publication of the Association of Grace Brethren Ministers. I presented a series of statements encouraging us to ponder turning away from a dogmatic pre-tribulation rapture position and back to the simplicity of “The Message of the Brethren Ministry.” [See Appendix #1]

In 2015-16 the FGBC/Charis Fellowship adopted a new document known as “The Charis Commitment to Common Identity.” It is an interesting document worth a look (under “about” at www.charisfellowship.us). Its eschatology statement is premillennial without dogmatism about the timing of the Rapture:

The present Church age will come to an end when our Lord comes in the air to remove His Church from the earth and fulfill His promises to Israel. The second coming of Christ is the personal, physical, and visible return from heaven of Christ to earth with His Church, to establish His thousand-year reign before instituting His eternal kingdom.

The Charis Fellowship’s educational institution, Grace College and Grace Theological Seminary, retains a pre-tribulation rapture statement in its “Covenant of Faith.”

These two examples represent a broad trend in conservative denominations toward the loosening of position-taking on the Rapture of the Church. Other evangelicals have, on the other hand, retained the pretribulation rapture point—the Assemblies of God and the Calvary Chapel network are examples of denominations doing this.

Some Final Words
(We believe) in one Lord Jesus Christ

For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.

We look forward to the resurrection of the dead,
and to life in the world to come. Amen.

– The Nicene Creed (325 AD)

Millions of Christians express their unity of faith in Christ’s return as they recite this creed or the similar though briefer Apostles’ Creed.
I strongly believe that the various perspectives on the details of the Second Coming of Jesus and the Rapture of the Church are to be points of discussion rather than division, for celebration not for conflict, for anticipation not for acrimony.

Therefore I tend to oppose doctrinal statements that go beyond the simple, clear, significant confessions of the post-apostolic church on Jesus’ present Session in heaven, his return in glory, the resurrection of the dead, judgment of all, and life in the world to come.

What is my “preference” so far as the Rapture is concerned? Well, of course, my personal preference is for a pre-tribulation rapture. I want to escape the trials of the Last Days. But what does the biblical information support? I fear that the desire for an exemption from tribulation is a feature of comfortable Western Christianity, which has enjoyed unparalleled religious freedom and a long vacation from major tribulation. But that is not the experience of many Christians over time or around the world today (“…through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of God.” – Acts 14:22 ESV).

My operational and theological thesis now is that the Bible does not provide support for a two-stage Second Coming—what I have referred to as “Second Coming A” (the Rapture) and “Second Coming B” (the Revelation). There is no compelling reason to hold to more than a single comprehensive “Second Coming in Glory.”

That said, I pray my mind stays open for I know there is much more to learn in humility because “now we see through a glass dimly” and we will not “fully know” until we see Jesus face-to-face (1 Corinthians 13:12).

Jesus’ Second Coming in glory is “The Blessed Hope” of the Church which the Apostle Paul presented in Titus 2:11-13 as an inducement for godly living. I stress again that this godliness-inducing event is Jesus’ glorious appearance, his “epiphaneia” after the Tribulation, to establish his Kingdom (Revelation 19:11-16).

The grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing
[epipháneian] of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ…

“Veni, Domine Jesu”
“Come, Lord Jesus!”

(Revelation 22:20)

Please see two Appendices below.

www.donaldshoemakerministries.com
Contact me at: donaldshoemakerministries@verizon.net

Don has been a member of the clergy in the Long Beach, California area since 1970. He now serves as Pastor Emeritus of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach (where he was senior pastor 1984-2012) and as Senior Chaplain of the Seal Beach Police Department (2001+). He previously was an assistant professor of Biblical Studies at Biola University (1976-84) and chaired the Social Concerns Committee in the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches from 1985 to 2019.

His graduate work includes a Master of Divinity from Grace Theological Seminary, a Master of Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary with a concentration in Christian ethics, and a Doctor of Ministry from American Baptist Seminary of the West (now Berkeley School of Theology) with a concentration on the Charismatic Movement. His law school studies included a course on the First Amendment. He and his wife Mary have been married for over 55 years. They have two children and six grandchildren.

© 2022 Donald P. Shoemaker[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Appendix #1 –
My article on “Grace Brethren Eschatology”

(Reprinted from Sharpening One Another, publication of the Association of Grace Brethren Ministers, May, 2000)

Grace Brethren Eschatology:
Where Should Our Fellowship Go?

By Dr. Donald P. Shoemaker, Senior Pastor
Grace Community Church (FGBC)
of Seal Beach, California

In 1921, Dr. Alva J. McClain authored “The Message of the Brethren Ministry,” setting forth the common beliefs of the Brethren ministers of that day. The statement has been a defining document of our movement ever since and was endorsed by our General Conference in 1938.

This is the eschatology statement of “The Message”:

The personal and visible return of our Lord Jesus Christ from Heaven as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, the glorious goal for which we are taught to watch, wait and pray.

Since the summary of our beliefs is always a current statement of a never-ending process (this side of Glory) to articulate truth, rather than a statement of our perfect understanding of truth, I believe the time has come for us to revisit our current position on eschatology. Specifically, I suggest it is time for us to extend latitude toward more than one evangelical option on how the Rapture of the Church relates to the Tribulation Period.

Here are some reasons for my thinking…

(1) Belief in a pre-tribulation rapture is neither an essential part of historic Christian confessions nor (either in breadth or duration) of the belief patterns of the Brethren throughout our history.

(2) The notion of a 7-year tribulation rises from only one interpretation, among many viable ones, of Daniel 9:25-27, an apocalyptic passage notoriously cryptic.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text](3) The pre-tribulation rapture is generally defended along inferential lines rather than from relatively straightforward statements of the biblical text.

(4) Creating our identity around a fine point of eschatology and separating from other Christians over such a fine point seem contrary to “maintaining the unity of the Spirit” in the Body of Christ.

(5) The study of eschatology is by nature a tentative exercise, especially the more we refine our position beyond the fundamental points of a Second Advent, resurrection, judgment and eternal state.

(6) Twentieth-century “Dispensationalism” has undergone modifications in recent years that have called into debate some of its features previously thought to be “necessary.”

(7) A survey of Grace Brethren ministers in 1982 found that a sizeable minority of ministers confessed varying degrees of reservation over our stated position on a pre-tribulation rapture. The number of ministers with reservations has most likely increased since 1982. A spirit of honest inquiry on matters not foundational to our faith as Christians is best done in an unthreatening and brotherly context where we can be “free to disagree.”

(8) Our witness to our world and our expression of our self-identity should focus on the major themes that separate “light from darkness” (or at least they should express major theological themes) rather than peripheral or tangential areas where godly, conscientious Christians have differences.

So I would pose the question, “Is now the time for us to identify ourselves more with the historical Christian hope and with the Evangelical mainstream in our eschatology?”

A return to Dr. McClain’s articulate words could be the right step in that direction.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Appendix #2

Primary Sources for the 3-part study: “For Me, the ‘Rapture’ Is Up in the Air!”
(The Second Coming of Christ and the Rapture of the Church)
(May, June, & July-August Newsletters)

Archer, Gleason, et. al., The Rapture—Pre-, Mid-, or Post-Tribulational?
Bird, Michael F., Evangelical Theology (second edition), “The Gospel of the Kingdom,”
pp. 297-393.
Blaising, Craig, et. al., Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church.
Bruce, F. F., Word Bible Commentary: I & II Thessalonians (vol. 45).
Demarest, Gary W., Mastering the New Testament: 1, 2 Thessalonians; 1,2 Timothy and Titus.
Erickson, Millard J., A Basic Guide to Eschatology.
Fee, Gordon D., The First and Second Letters to the Thessalonians.
Grudem, Wayne, Systematic Theology (second edition), “The Doctrine of the Future,”
pp. 1343-1418.
Gundry, Robert H., “An Open Letter to Dr. John F. Walvoord concerning his book
The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation” (36 pp.).
__________, Commentary on the New Testament (vol. 2), Romans-Revelation, pp. 812-31.
__________, The Church and the Tribulation.
__________, First the Antichrist.
Ladd, George, “Eschatology,” A Theology of the New Testament, pp. 550-58.
__________, The Blessed Hope.
__________, The Last Things.
Mayhue, Richard L., “Why a Pretribulational Rapture?” The Master’s Seminary Journal
(Fall 2002) 241-53.
Marshall, I. Howard, The New Century Bible: 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
Morris, Leon, The Epistles of Paul to the Thessalonians.
Ortlund, Gavin, Finding the Right Hills to Die On—The Case for Theological Triage.
Pentecost, J. Dwight, Things to Come.
Sailhamer, John H., Biblical Prophecy.
Sandy, D. Brent, Plowshares and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic.
Saucy, Robert G., The Case for Progressive Dispensationalism.
Schreiner, Thomas R., “Who are the 144,000 in Revelation 7?” Crossway
(daily e-edition for June 13, 2022).
Shoemaker, Donald P., “Grace Brethren Eschatology: Where Should Our Fellowship Go?” Sharpening One Another (Association of Grace Brethren Ministers, May, 2000).
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (vol. VII), “episunagōgē,” pp. 841-43.
Walvoord, John F., The Blessed Hope and The Tribulation.
__________, The Rapture Question.
__________, The Thessalonian Epistles.
Weima, Jeffrey A. D., 1-2 Thessalonians.
Whitcomb, John C., The Rapture and Beyond.
Wright, Randy. “Arguing the Pre-Tribulation Rapture from 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 Alone.”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]