My background
(2). Proximity. We also need to move much closer in proximity to each other--preferably within walking distance of one another and our meetinghouse. This is the only way we will be able to develop the closeness of relationship, and provide the mutual support, that are meaningful for us as witnesses to Jesus. It is also the best way, perhaps the only one, by which we can create any clarity of witness to Jesus as a distinctively alternative society based on his truth, freedom, love, and vitality.
(c) Getting much closer to the land.
Right now the GTS stands as a distinct counter-creation to God's good creation, imposes itself as our mediator with that good creation, all the while sucking the vitality out of it and us. Jesus Christ is calling us to draw much closer to the land, eliminate the GTS as mediator, and affirm our own vitality and that of the land by living in ways that nurture and protect all species and their habitats. In particular, Jesus is calling his churches to develop local food supplies adequate for feeding local populations. Local Christians and congregations should be able to feed themselves, and as many others as possible, from local sources.
(d) Developing a distinctively Christian way of living.
Each day every person is bullied, bribed, and deceived into walking with the false Olympian gods on their path of power which ends in death and damnation. Miraculously, and at the same time, Jesus daily frees us to walk with him on the path of freedom. He frees us to love Abba with our whole mind by reading the Bible, improving as theological thinkers, and enjoying a lively sense of history. He frees us to get much closer to our companion Christians in a local congregation. Finally, he frees us as congregations to get close enough to God's good creation to receive our daily bread from local sources.
In my youth I felt a certain urgency to understand the
truth. I still do.
At one point, this led me to pursue a master’s degree in
divinity at one seminary and to obtain it at another. I served various congregations as
pastor over a period of 20 years.
Before, during, and after that time, I read the Bible.
I studied books on theology by Karl Barth and Jacques Ellul. They continue to inspire me.
I found the study of history compelling. I lived and
traveled across the United States, Canada, and Europe to understand history
better.
My understanding of the truth has grown as Jesus has
freed me to share his truth, love, and vitality with others and has freed
others to share these with me.
Most
decisively, I've learned the truth through a decades-long relationship with
Jesus Christ which he first established and has graciously chosen daily to
renew with me.
Where
we Christians and churches are today and what Jesus is calling us to do about it
1.
Jesus Christ sets us with him on the path of freedom which is based on truth
and leads through love to eternal life.
Jesus
Christ is the source, center, and goal of all freedom, truth, love, and
vitality. Today he calls you and me to join him on the difficult path of
freedom and from there to share the light of his truth, warmth of his love, and
strength of his vitality with others as his witnesses. On each Lord’s Day, he especially
wants to gather us Christians together in faith, build us up in love, and send
us out in hope (as Barth put it).
2. Yet
false gods continue to enthrall us with the path of power which is based on
falsehood and leads through indifference to death.
Until
freed by Jesus Christ, we humans were the unwilling victims and unknowing minions of powers of evil: Satan, false gods, and the Flesh. Throughout the
ages and continuing today, our societies, cultures, and personalities have all
been dominated by six particular false gods. To use their ancient Roman names, these gods
are (1) Jupiter, god of politics; (2) Mars, god of war;
(3) Vulcan, god of technology; (4) Venus, goddess of
sex; (5) Pluto, god of money; and (6) Bacchus, god of
consumption. Because the Romans believed that these gods lived on Mount Olympus,
we may call them the Olympian gods. We may call the religion structured in
terms of them Olympianity.
Olympianity
is the world’s oldest, most popular, yet least recognized religion. It is the
religion of power. Power is always based on falsehood: lies, yes, but mainly
illusions. It demands indifference to Jesus Christ, other human beings, and
God’s good creation. It always ends in despair, destruction, and death.
History’s
greatest expression of power is today’s Global Technological System (GTS). The
GTS is the most powerful achievement of the six conventional yet false Olympian
gods and their most challenging counter-creation to God’s good creation. In our
blind devotion to the Olympian gods, we humans have been working most
diligently in constructing their GTS since 1750 with the beginning of the
Technological Revolution in England.
Based as
it is on power, the GTS is parasitic. All powers of evil—Satan, false gods,
Flesh—have no vitality of their own, get none from God, so must suck it from us
and from other humans and creatures through us. The GTS is their best means yet
for doing so. Each day it grows more inescapable and yet requires the
corruption of all global societies and cultures, the systematic exploitation of
billions of human beings, and the destruction of God’s good creation.
Worse,
the GTS is collapsing. The parasite has grown so large that it is killing the
host. Its collapse began in 2008 and has been accelerating ever since. It will
soon get unimaginably worse.
3.
Even Christians have fallen under their spell.
Because
the GTS is the greatest work of our devotion to the Olympian gods, it is all
about power not freedom, falsehood not truth, indifference not love, and death
not life. It intentionally seeks to control, limit, and destroy all faithful
witness to the freedom, truth, love, and vitality of Jesus Christ. In this way,
the GTS is meaningless.
Sadly,
the six destructive gods and their meaningless GTS largely dominate Christians
and the Church. We blindly devote ourselves to them and it. We absurdly cooperate
with them in the destruction of our own witness to Jesus Christ. We
enthusiastically yet foolishly renew their spell over us daily through our own
addiction to Olympian media of communication (especially television).
4. But
Jesus Christ is calling us to join him as prophetic witnesses in breaking their
spell beginning with his Church.
Thanks be
to God! Jesus refuses to let us go. Today he is calling you and me to join him
as prophetic witnesses. He is blessing us with words of truth which, when
shared by us with others, will be used by him to break the Olympian spell under
which his churches currently labor. He seeks to free us, as Christians and
churches, from the destructive Olympian gods and their parasitic, collapsing,
and meaningless GTS.
5. Use
this website to strengthen your prophetic witness to Jesus Christ for the good
of his Church and praise of his name by:
(a)
Getting much closer to God.
(1) Read, meditate on, and apply the Bible
daily. The Bible is the clearest witness to Jesus ever written. Jesus still
prefers to speak to us today through its normative words. We express our love
for him best by daily reading his book with open minds and joyful hearts.
On the “Bible” page, I’ve listed over one hundred essays on a wide variety of
biblical passages in biblical order. Use these essays to strengthen your own
ability to discern the meaning and application of biblical passages. What is
Jesus saying to you and your congregation through these biblical passages
today?
Before
reading an essay, read the corresponding biblical passage first. Develop your
own understanding of it. Then compare your understanding with mine. Read other
commentaries. Discuss the passage, and these various understandings, with at
least one other prophetic witness. Develop a shared understanding. Then act on
that understanding together. This last step is essential.
(2)
Improve as a theological thinker. Fulfilling the
Great Commandment (Mark 12:30) includes loving Abba with our whole mind. As
Christians and congregations, we haven’t been doing that for some time. It is
crucial we do so now. The Holy Spirit is enabling us to embrace this difficult
task. Only in this way will Jesus, upon his return, find any faith on Earth (Luke 18:8).
Karl Barth (1886-1968) was the greatest Christian theologian of the 20th century: unsurpassed in his Christ-centeredness, biblical consistency, logical coherence, range, and depth. On the "Barth" page, I've listed summaries of dozens of sections from his monumental Church Dogmatics. Use these to strengthen your skill as a theological thinker. Then move on and read any of Barth's books yourself.
Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) is the perfect companion to Barth. He shared Barth's theological point of view but, as a professor of law, history, and sociology, he supplemented it with what still remains, at this late date, the most incisive analysis of the GTS. Exercise your theological thinking by critically engaging the essays on the "Ellul" page. Being guided by Jesus Christ, through the Bible, with the help of Barth and Ellul would do us and our congregations no end of good.
"Topics" serves as a glossary for the most important yet unusual words which I use in my essays. It also lists essays on a variety of subjects in alphabetical order to make them easier to find. Use them to clarify your own witness to Jesus. Then develop a shared understanding of that witness with at least one other prophetic witness and live it.
Karl Barth (1886-1968) was the greatest Christian theologian of the 20th century: unsurpassed in his Christ-centeredness, biblical consistency, logical coherence, range, and depth. On the "Barth" page, I've listed summaries of dozens of sections from his monumental Church Dogmatics. Use these to strengthen your skill as a theological thinker. Then move on and read any of Barth's books yourself.
Jacques Ellul (1912-1994) is the perfect companion to Barth. He shared Barth's theological point of view but, as a professor of law, history, and sociology, he supplemented it with what still remains, at this late date, the most incisive analysis of the GTS. Exercise your theological thinking by critically engaging the essays on the "Ellul" page. Being guided by Jesus Christ, through the Bible, with the help of Barth and Ellul would do us and our congregations no end of good.
"Topics" serves as a glossary for the most important yet unusual words which I use in my essays. It also lists essays on a variety of subjects in alphabetical order to make them easier to find. Use them to clarify your own witness to Jesus. Then develop a shared understanding of that witness with at least one other prophetic witness and live it.
(3)
Enjoy a lively sense of history. “History” is full of people, places, events, and works of
creativity significant to Western Civilization. We rightly remember and celebrate all that was true, good, and beautiful
in that history. We also rightly remember, as a cautionary tale, some that was
false, evil, and unseemly. Understanding our past, both good and evil, helps us
to witness more clearly to Jesus now. Forgetting our past, altogether as we do
now, dooms us to the sterile repetition of Olympian devotion, destruction, and
death as the parasitic, collapsing, and meaningless GTS so amply demonstrates.
“Geography,” “Biography,” “Books,” “Visual Arts,” and “Music” provide ways of reflecting on the places, people, and creative
works of our history from different points of view.
(b) Getting much closer to other church members through greater:
(1) Love. As Christians and participants in a church with other Christians, we need to significantly increase the strength of our relationships. We need to move from being a loose association of individuals, with very weak mutual commitments, to a strong community marked by mutual nurture and protection. As Jesus said, "All people will know that you are my disciples by your love" (John 13:35).
(1) Love. As Christians and participants in a church with other Christians, we need to significantly increase the strength of our relationships. We need to move from being a loose association of individuals, with very weak mutual commitments, to a strong community marked by mutual nurture and protection. As Jesus said, "All people will know that you are my disciples by your love" (John 13:35).
(2). Proximity. We also need to move much closer in proximity to each other--preferably within walking distance of one another and our meetinghouse. This is the only way we will be able to develop the closeness of relationship, and provide the mutual support, that are meaningful for us as witnesses to Jesus. It is also the best way, perhaps the only one, by which we can create any clarity of witness to Jesus as a distinctively alternative society based on his truth, freedom, love, and vitality.
(c) Getting much closer to the land.
Right now the GTS stands as a distinct counter-creation to God's good creation, imposes itself as our mediator with that good creation, all the while sucking the vitality out of it and us. Jesus Christ is calling us to draw much closer to the land, eliminate the GTS as mediator, and affirm our own vitality and that of the land by living in ways that nurture and protect all species and their habitats. In particular, Jesus is calling his churches to develop local food supplies adequate for feeding local populations. Local Christians and congregations should be able to feed themselves, and as many others as possible, from local sources.
(d) Developing a distinctively Christian way of living.
Each day every person is bullied, bribed, and deceived into walking with the false Olympian gods on their path of power which ends in death and damnation. Miraculously, and at the same time, Jesus daily frees us to walk with him on the path of freedom. He frees us to love Abba with our whole mind by reading the Bible, improving as theological thinkers, and enjoying a lively sense of history. He frees us to get much closer to our companion Christians in a local congregation. Finally, he frees us as congregations to get close enough to God's good creation to receive our daily bread from local sources.
Copyright © 2019 by Steven Farsaci.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
