The epitome of psychological positiveness is in the book, I’m Okay - You’re Okay. 717 In
transactional analysis, there are four life positions. “You” and “I” are either
okay or not okay which results in four permutations. Of course, the “life
position” was communication and psychological behavior, but there is no chasm
between the psyche and the soul!
“Okay” in psychology is well-balanced. “Okay” in Christian theology is
spiritually in communion with God – safe with trust in Him. “Not okay” is
psychologically maladjusted but in theology, it is living without hope. The
problem lies in psychology where people are convinced that they are okay when
they are not! “Okayness” is the soma of mankind. We are not okay – never.
Although mankind communicates well with God, there is still some doubt.
Christians often question their own degree of okay. Satan says that you are not okay; there is something else
you must do!
On the other hand, God says, although
you doubt, you’re okay with Me! Do Christians have perfect faith where
there is no doubt? Not at all; they still fear the vipers, and that they may be
bitten but God is keeping them safe.
We all have doubts: are we okay? Positive affirmation is saying and
thinking often, I’m okay. Thinking
you are okay does not make you okay. It is the object of your affection and
trust that makes one okay! He is God. Many people convince themselves they are
okay. Joyce Meyers, on her television program says something to the effect, “I
know that I know that I know that I am saved.” That declaration is being assured
of salvation. Is she really that assured? Has she no doubts at all? Has she
perfect faith? I submit that only God has perfect faith and to claim that for
oneself is irresponsible and maybe a little conceited. Satan casts doubts on
our safety all the time. I suggest that her hope of salvation is intense! That
is a good thing! But what if people say that to delude themselves? That is
dangerous.
There are many types of Positive Christianity. It is not inferred that
the Joel Osteen types are of the same caliber as the German Church in the Third
Reich. Just as there are degrees of spirituality, there are degrees of
confusion. Satan’s method is confusion. Everything must be tested by Scripture,
and the psychology removed from doctrine. God need not be manipulated. He is
who He is! Satan wants God distorted. Distortion kills God’s “nature”. (I have
trouble using nature because God is supra-natural). God is not an Islamic
Jenn who grants wishes and makes good things happen to you. Christians must make sacrifices and face
persecution. 718 There are degrees of persecution. Sometimes
Christians do not prosper. That is a lesson in humility. Sometimes Christians
get sick. When they recover, it makes one thankful for healing. When a loved
one dies, it makes eternity real for the living.
We have looked at the deaths of the apostles. All but one died for
Jesus’s Name. Joh of Patmos was boiled in oil for Jesus’s sake. That’s not
positive Christianity from the standpoint of humanity but it was God’s will.
Bad things happen to “good” people for God’s purposes!
During the 2008 recession, I lost most of my 401k. At the same time a
legal problem took a chunk of my cash on hand which was modest. It seemed the
end of the world for me, and even with prayer, I was stressed. Money was my
viper, and I feared the venom of poverty. Then, I put it in perspective – God
will take care of me, and He did! I thought of the young rich man in the Bible
who had always kept most of the commandments. 719 Those he carefully
kept referred to his fellow man. He never mentioned the commandments about
trusting, revering and loving God. His love of money, like mine, was his
poisonous viper.
The rich young man did not trust
God to forsake his wealth. God took my wealth but never forsook me. He stayed
firm with me as He promised. 720 In 2008, much of my life was far
from positive. I faced many trials and was sick with stress. My faith
increased. That was God’s purpose for me. I needed that challenge to see if I
would look up at God on his “pole”. He pulled me through but the vipers were vicious!
Before I leave the subject of
positive Christianity, let me relate the greatest challenge of my life. I
announced to my Sunday school class that in the following week, I would be teaching
about Satan. Late one night a thought occurred to me in the third person
present tense: before you teach against
me you’d better be without spot yourself. I never talk that way, especially
like I’m someone else! I’m not proud enough to think that Satan visited me but
surely a dark angel had, representing Satan.
That conversation scared me. I
was shaken and afraid. To repress those thoughts, although I can’t sing, I sang
hymns for about an hour. I prayed for God to deliver me from that spiritual
affront. When I became settled enough about four in the morning a wrote it all
down. I never wanted to forget that experience! God delivered me and that is a
positive thing. However, for months I was tested. God allowed Satan to test my
faith. Satan presented vipers at every turn: lasciviousness, anger, stress,
marital problems, and on and on. I had never been tested so much! The snakes
were striking at my heels. I looked up at the “pole” and God brought me to safety.
God overcame my snakes.
Testing is not a fun thing. To
appreciate the Hebrew and the vipers story, one must read the Book of Job. That
example is a simile of the Christian walk. Job was attacked from all sides by
various “vipers”. He looked up at God, and God kept him safe with His spiritual
hedge. That is not positive Christianity. What is, is that God will carry us
through the vipers if we keep looking up to Him. However, the vipers may very
well keep striking time and time again but we must remain steadfast! 721
Be
sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion,
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith.
The devil roaring and seeking to
devour Christians is hardly positive! There are always another devil trying to
devour us. One of the worst is the onset
of Islamic influence into the modern Church.
Islam:
In this age, doctrine of foreign
peoples cannot be criticized. The ideological police have defined criticism of non-western
ideas as hatred. The elite: educators, media, special interest groups,
government representatives and even the liberal Church have made it improper –
politically incorrect – to criticize anyone other than Christians and Jews.
Like the Romans of post-apostolic times, society is very tolerant of religions
other than Judaism and Christianity. Persecution was extreme in those times and
less so today. However, in apocalyptic times persecution will rise to that extreme
again. 722
People from Islamic nations are
some of the “whosoever” from John 3:16 that God loves. However, God must be
loved on His terms. Christians Doctrine is that to be saved, one and all must
believe in God. “Allah” is the Arabic word for God. (a contraction of al-ilāh, which means "the god").
723 Allah is a descriptive word. God is a descriptive word. Like God
has descriptions in reference to Him, so does Allah. Many are the same because
they came from the Hebrew sacred writings. 724 Arabic-speaking Christians
use Allah in reference to God. That
should not be surprising because it’s just a difference between English and Arabic.
Likewise, Jupiter was the chief god in the Roman state religion as well. That
does not make either the one true God!
Allah has one aspect or “nature”.
He is the creator “God”. Thus, Muslims are monotheistic as are Christians but
they are also non-Trinitarians. Allah’s identity is not of three aspects:
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Christian Doctrine is that Jesus is God incarnate,
and that he was conceived by God’s Holy Spirit. That is not the character of Allah.
725
Islam has its “Jesus”, called Isa in Arabic. However, Isa did not die on
Calvary and neither was he resurrected. Therefore, Allah never died for anyone!
He is an imposter God. This is not stated to offend but merely to point out doctrinal
differences.
After the 9/11 attack, the “correct”
thing to say even in Churches was, Islam
is a peaceful religion. However, it is not, and never has been! Whereas,
Christians use trust in Jesus’s death to proselytize, Islam is noted for
conversion with the sword. The history of Islam is one of violence – conquering
nations for Allah’s sake. Their goal is a worldwide caliphate with Sharia Law
and the Islamic faith. (Much of this can be found in a careful reading of the Quran
– their “bible”).
To be fair, neither was Christianity,
in its beginnings, a peaceful religion. The Hebrew religion was always
Christ-focused. When God destroyed people’s in patriarchal days, it was all in
preparation for the Messiah. However, God’s methods changed with His coming to
earth. He came to provide “peace on earth and good will toward men”. 726
However, that peace had nothing to do with war! It was inner peace in man, and
toward mankind. Thus, with the advent of the Messiah, Christianity changed
drastically because God’s purpose had bene fulfilled – the seed of Israel was
born as promised to Abraham in God’s covenant with him.
Muslims don’t like it but the
promise was to Abraham through Jacob, not Ismael. Thus, Jesus is of Jacob
(renamed Israel), and the Kingdom of David was the prosperity that Abraham was
promised to grow God’s people. Indeed, the Jews are the chosen people even
though anyone can be His peculiar
people as was discussed earlier. Salvation was always for everyone, by grace,
and through the blood of Jesus. That is “the mystery of God” of which Paul
taught. 727 Thus, grace is for the Arabs as well. Islam hinders
their conversion. Like the Jews when they killed God, Muslims know not what
they do.
Because of the Abrahamic
Covenant there has always been war in the middle east. 728 War is
about the ownership of the Holy Land. Thus, since Mohammad conceived Islam, there
has been war between the Church and Islam, and between the Semitic cousins –
the Arabs and the Jews.
Islam killed the Church in the
middle east in he seventh century. I almost killed the Church in Europe in the
eight-century until it was stopped by Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours in
732. 729
Referring to Montefiore’s book
again, 728 the reformation of the nation of Israel in 1948 accelerated
the hatred and war between Islam and Judeo-Christians. It seems that God did
not bring peace on earth! Did Scripture lie? 730
Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you,
Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house
divided, three against two, and two against three.The father shall be divided against the son, and the son
against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against
the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in
law against her mother in law.
Jesus did not come to stop war!
It was peace within and to others. Jesus realized that his Doctrine was
controversial. Peculiar people would cause distress in the world. There exists
a new psychological dysfunction in the world since Jesus’s time. I have coined
the term “christusphobia” – the fear of Christ!
Of course, people are to fear God. He is the Judge. However, because God
judges people, because of their guilt, those not born-again fear Him. Christianity
should not be feared. It is the religion of peace. Christ brought peace to the
world and it’s there for the having! Why, then, the violence? Because of
provocation. War has always in ancient times been about whose “god” is the most
powerful. Even today, the war between Islam and Judeo-Christianity is about
whose God is strongest and correct.
Islam’s Allah has always attempted to kill the Israelite God. Killing God
means Jesus must be killed!
But Jesus already died! How can
he be re-crucified? By denying that His death was efficacious – taking God’s
Name… and death in vain. Islam doesn’t believe that Isa died on the cross. They
demote him from Savior to prophet. Islam kills the idea of God. He is no longer
Savior but only Creator, although it seems that the Creator would be Almighty
enough to save!
Islam’s mission is nearly
accomplished. Although there is still violence which is overwhelming, their
peaceful takeover seems to underwhelm. What is meant by that, is while the
world looks keenly at terrorism, that is not the greatest danger; the peaceful
acceptance of Islam is! The western world forgets their goal – a world wide caliphate
with Sharia Law and Islamic religion. Islam is a real and present danger
through their peaceful means. Socialism is their tool through progressive
thought. Yes, progressivism with their magnified tolerance will lose our republic
which Ben Franklin questioned whether it could be kept! 731
The Book of Revelation reveals
that our republic will not be kept. There will be a global government with a religion
which beheads those who do not take the mark of the beast. The leader, from the
middle east, will proclaim himself God. According to Islam Isa will return with
a vengeance. 732 Isa’s identity is the Antichrist of Revelation.
Putting prophecies of the Quran,
the Surat, and the Bible together, and examining Marxism’s Manifesto, the apocalypse
seems clear. Operating as socialists, I believe that Islam will be established
and grow for the first three-and-a-half years of the tribulation period. It
will be looked on as kind and peaceful. However, it seems to me that the last
three-and-a-half years will be severe Sharia Law which is as dogmatic, repressive,
and cruel as communism.
717
I'm OK – You're OK; First printing (U.S. Edition); Harris, Thomas
A; July, 1973; paperback, 317 pages.
718
Holy Bible; Mat 5:10.
719
ibid; Mat 19:16-30; Mark 10:17:31;
Luke 18:18-30.
720
ibid; Heb 13:5.
721
ibid (KJV); 1 Pet 5:8-9.
722
ibid; Rev 20:4.
723
Wikipedia; “Allah”.
724
Wikipedia; “Names of God in Islam”.
725
The Religions of the Ancient World; Rawlinson,
George; Lovell, Coreyell and Company: New York; 1880.
726
Holy Bible; Luke 2:14.
727
ibid; Col 1:27.
728
Jerusalem: The Biography; Montefiore;
Simon Sebag; Vintage (reprint); Sept 18, 2012.
729
Wikipedia; “Battle of Tours”.
730
Holy Bible (KJV); Luke 12:51-53.
731
Ben Franklin Quote to Mrs. Powell who asked what type of government they had.
732 http://www.islamicity.org/5640/jesus-will-return/
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