Category Archives: Doctrine
Fundy Christmas Day 9: Reason For the Season
If your family read the crucifixion story every year before opening your presents, you may have been a fundamentalist. For to a fundamentalist, the Incarnation is often seen as little more than the first step on the road to Calvary. For unto us a Son is given and his name shall be called Doomed, Condemned, Destined for Destruction. He was born to die.
But we do our Savior a great injustice if we give the season a tragic tone as if this Baby should be mourned as merely mortal. Consider too the years of his humanity as a child, his miracles, his compassion, his wisdom, his teachings of love for others, his laughter and tears and hunger and weariness experienced as a God who condescended to become a man and walk among us. He was born to Live.
And yes, he was betrayed and mocked and falsely accused and beaten and crucified…but the story doesn’t end there either! For of his own will he defeated death and rose from the grave, comforting his grieving friends with words of Everlasting Life. He was born to Live.
Remember the words of his promise that he will never leave us or forsake us and that he is that friend who is closer than a brother. After our years of struggle and pain are ended we too will live with him in an eternity where there will be no darkness or pain or dying ever again. In him we will finally be truly alive. He was born to Live.
Dear heart, if you want to remember the Reason for the Season as you gather on Christmas Day this year, do not mourn as if Christ’s life was only given to be consumed in the tragedy of his death. Read instead these words…”Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen.”
He was born to Live.
Reader Submitted Photos: Monarchs
I really have to wonder where the fundy obsession with kings originates. If you can at the same time believe that God’s Word had to be authorized by a human king but that a Republic is God’s favorite form of government — you might be a fundamentalist.
Rapture Games
It’s a unique experience to grow up as a fundamentalist child who is constantly under the threat of either being suddenly yanked out of the world in the twinkling of a eye or being left behind as an orphan for seven years of tribulation. This is stuff that will keep an eight-year-old up at night. If I’m in heaven, who’s going to feed my dog? (In case you’re wondering you can prepare ahead with a letter to an unsaved animal lover via raptureletters.com)
But to their credit, fundamentalist children are nothing if not creative when faced with the possibility of suddenly being disembodied. For example, there’s a helpful clause in Scripture which says that “no man knows the day or the hour” of the Lord’s return. If you’ve ever made it a bedtime ritual to proclaim “I know the Lord will return tomorrow” in hopes of using reverse psychology on the Almighty to stave off the End Times, you might have been a fundamentalist child.
But for those without a clever Rapture-prevention strategy, the fear of being left behind in the midst of Tribulation chaos is a real one for fundamentalists of all ages. The ubiquitous tale of pilots sucked out of the cockpits of their airliners to the doom of the passengers calls for giving some careful scrutiny to the flight crew when boarding an aircraft to see if there are visible clues to their salvation status. “Everybody relax, the pilot has a mustache.” It looks like any unsaved passengers will get to live for another day.
If you’ve ever been awakened from a dead sleep by a car horn and your first thought was “I’ve been left behind!” — you probably have been a fundamentalist.
Disunity
In fundyland, any talk of unity is generally greeted with a healthy dose of suspicion. For in any group of significant size with even a hint of diversity there will be those who may disagree with the fundamentalist on some point of doctrine, practice, or formal etiquette. You just can’t trust anybody these days.
Indeed, the call to unity is the great siren song of Satan. For one fateful day, hand will join in hand and all the world’s great religions will combine into one single world religion under a world-wide government with a single currency and a single language. This will in turn lead to seven really icky years of tribulation (which Christians will be lucky enough to miss via the Rapture) and then the peace and prosperity of the millennial reign of Christ. So, of course, you can see why such a fate is to be avoided at any cost.
In short, the fundamentalist will not be adding his name to your club, group, or knitting circle unless its focus is shooting stuff or getting a candidate elected. To hear more, consider joining our Counsel on Holy Disunity and Blessed Isolation. Meetings are held every Wednesday at 4 p.m.