Can Prayer Change A Nation?

Over the last year, I worked on a national project to gather pastors together to come to Washington, DC to pray for our nation.  Normally, I do not like working on prayer projects during the presidential election season.  I find too many people get suspicious of a prayer gathering in DC during an election year.  This year was no exception.  I also found that this particular gathering was one of the hardest goals I've ever worked for in these types of events. However, I always enjoy the challenge and I worked harder on this project than I've worked in the past.  In all my years of working on National Prayers gatherings, getting 30,000 pastors to commit to coming to this event was like herding cats. Pastor's are so committed to their local church work and so hard pressed by their work - it's extremely difficult to get them to join in another function unless it assists them in their regular routines.  The other major challenges I faced had to do with two other major events which were scheduled this year which basically polarized this major gathering of the Body Of Christ in DC.  One event was being held on the same day in LA and the other was a youth event that was to be held only 90 days later at the Washington Monument.  I have never experienced such competing movements in the Body Of Christ and the response and loyalties to their brands of these events. But, one question remains to be answered despite any organized prayer event, "Can Prayer Change A Nation?"

Since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, DC  American Christians have entered into the struggle of defining our national identity.  Among some Christians there is a belief that America has it's historic roots in the Christian faith.  For others, the Euro-centric version of the Christian faith was imposed on the natives of the land and slaves brought ashore by the mid-Atlantic slave trading industry which imposed colonialism which had nothing to do with God.  Yet, there are others who see no hope for any nation's future and believe that the end of our nation and even the world is near. Many of these folk believe that God has abandon America and placed our nation under judgement. I have also found some who believe that we can't pray for our nation on the basis of II Chronicles 7:14 because they have concluded that this prayer was relegated to the Nation of Israel. They believe this land was stolen from the native populations, there was never a national covenant made between our founding fathers, and no promise was made by God for America to be given to the European settlers as a promised land. Therefore, we can't pray II Chronicles 7:14 as a basis for the healing of the nation since we are not Israel. In this view we probably cannot claim any of the promises of God outlined in the Hebrew Scriptures because it was meant for Israel alone. 

 Wow! All of this only demonstrates that our churches have truly been impacted by our post-modern deconstructionism. One question I have really begun think about is "Can America be healed of It's national wounds?" For that matter, "Can any nation be healed ff it's national wounds?" If so, then what is the basis of a nation being "saved?"   I love Isaiah 66:8 "Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a nation be saved in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in one moment?"  It seems apparent to me that God does rule over history and brings salvation for a nation.  However, salvation doesn't come without true repentance. When you or I came to Christ - we recognized our sin and our need for our savior.  We are called to "repent for our personal sins (past and present - all of them) in order to receive the promises given through the work of the cross. There are conditions laid down for us in scripture laying the basis on how to be "saved."  We can't just say to Jesus - yeah, I want the blessings of your work but I refuse to accept the terms of your covenant.  Even those who have struggled through their addictions and worked through a 12-step program know that you cannot move forward without acknowledging, repenting, and making amends for their past. It's a very well known fact that until your acknowledge your "sins" you cannot be free from them.  So, what's important for the church in America to do is to stop living in denial of it's history and repent for its participation and role in our national sins so that it can become an instrument in bringing our nation to Christ.  Our past history matters. It shapes our present world and affects our future.

A few years ago, I was attending a meeting with some evangelicals in Dover, Delaware and a man walked up to me and asked why do you think it's important to address the past?  He went on to explain the past is the past.  We can do nothing to change it. Let bygones be bygones.  May first reaction to this kind of thinking was to ask, "Why then do most people think its important to acknowledge and remember the holocaust? Why does the German educational system teach it's children about its history? Why should they have to rehearse the sins of the past? Its very simple, the past shapes the present.  If the past is not important then why does our public education, colleges, and seminaries teach history?  The strange thing about this guy's questions was that we were both attending a seminar led by pseudo American Christian historian, David Barton.  Why was he even attending this history seminar if he didn't think the past wasn't important to remember?Millions of people around the world study history, philosophy, the arts, wars, genealogy and even how a family's DNA impacts the present.  So why shouldn't we explore the past? After all that's why over 600 people should up for the David Barton seminar. Edmund Burke put it this way, "Those who do not know their history are doomed to repeat it."  The real question should be: "Why are so many Christians committed to avoiding their past?  Rose Kennedy said, " Some have said, time heals all wounds.  I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens.  But it is never gone."

What this man, who attended that seminar that day was really saying was, "I don't want to be responsible for what my ancestors may of may not have done."  For me, I can't imagine why he doesn't understand that the Jewish people will never let the world forget what was done to them by the German people and the world.  The same can be said about what America did.  The American people are guilty of stealing land from the native people, the genocide of whole tribal groups, slavery, lynching, raping their women, separating whole families, destroying their identities, language and cultures all the while proclaiming that they were church going Christians - and Christians don't want to talk about it?  Maybe we need a few American tribal and slavery holocaust museums built to remind American's of their sin. Maybe the Body Of Christ needs to look at the churches role in this process and be called to account for its participation in promoting slavery, segregation, and racism. What ran in our fathers still runs in us today.  This is what the Bible calls iniquity.  Yes, Jesus was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities (Isa. 53:11) but you don't receive the right for that forgiveness until you recognize, acknowledge and repent of your sins.  You just can't say - can we let bygones be bygones.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated on August 23, 1963 that "It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges."  - from Dr. King's "I have a Dream speech

America can be saved.  But before it can be saved "The Body Of Christ" needs to lead the way and show America how to address the past. God is not going to bring a revival, awakening, or restoration to his people until they acknowledge their "participation" and "part" in our national sins. Only after we get ourselves and our relationships right with the Native American people and the African American community then, maybe God will forgive us and heal us of our transgressions.  Isaiah 66:8 explains how a nation can be saved, "Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children."  We need as the Body Of Christ to begin travailing in prayer and intercession for our churches and the state of our nation.

Leviticus 26:40-41 "If they shall confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their treachery which they committed against Me, and also that they have walked contrary unto Me.  I also will walk contrary unto them, and bring them into the land of their enemies; if then perchance their uncircumcised heart be humbled, and they then be paid the punishment of their iniquity; then will I remember My covenant with Jacob, and also My covenant with Isaac, and also My covenant with Abraham will I remember; and I will remember the land."

Question: now for us "Have we've been humbled or have we embolden ourselves as American Christians? Our American troops have spent over 10 years walking in the lands of our enemies? Are we "The Body Of Christ" arrogant enough to demand rights and claim dominionism over God's prescriptions for revival? I don't see or hear much brokenness and travail that Isaiah 66:8 calls us to?  So it may be a while before America is saved in a day. In my humble opinion, we are too proud, stubborn and self-reliant as a people. How can call on a nation to do something we won't do ourselves?

Nehemiah 9:2  "And the ALL of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers."

Roots Of Calvinism: Dehumanization, Slavery, And Racism In America! (Part 2)

Native American. Photo Copyright 2015 Robert Keller. Used with Permission.

On June 18, 1452 Pope Nicholas IV authorized King Alfonso V Of Portugal to begin a venture into “dispossessing pagan, heathen and unchristian people groups of their land and to bring them into perpetual slavery”. Immediately King Alfonso sent ships to the West Africa and began engaging in the African Slave Trade. This act was the foundation and origin of the Church's role in dehumanization, racism, and slavery.  Why on earth would a church called to do Luke 4:18 begin to engage itself in such a diabolical work that is opposite to the proclamation of Jesus? The Church is called to "proclaim good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and bring recovery of sight to the blind, and set the oppressed free. It was not to be engaged in theft and slave trading.  Four centuries later, In 1823, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall, would use this little known "Doctrine of The Western Church" (both Roman Catholic and Protestant) to justify the way for our government to seize land from Native American communities and establish a permanent slave class in the United States through landmark case Johnson vs. McIntosh.  Much time could be spent on what this ruling has done to our nation, but its important to note that it was this case that provided the foundation for the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Later this "Church Doctrine" would also provide foundation for Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney's decision on the famous Dred-Scott Decision which denied rights to African American slaves for freedom. In fact, it is important to point out, that the Constitution of the United states, in the fifth amendment, proclaims "no person shall be... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” Our own Constitution, (which states that slaves were only 3/5^th of a human being therefore not really a “person”), made it possible for African slaves and their descendants to be denied these rights because of the underlying principles established by the “Doctrine of Discovery."  Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney wrote in his famous Dred-Scott Decision; "Blacks have no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the negro might justify and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. He was bought and sold and treated as an ordinary article of merchandise and traffic, whenever, profit could be made by it."  This is the gift that the Western European Church gave as its contribution to the founding of our nation beginning in 1611 in Jamestown, Virginia. Now here we are almost 200 years later and what is even more disturbing is that most Christians are not aware that this "Western Church Doctrine” also provided the foundation for America's War On Terrorism in the Middle East today; and people wonder why Jihadist Muslims are upset.

-President Abraham Lincoln

What on earth would give the Vatican and it's protestant counterparts the thought that "pagans, heathens, and unchristian" people groups needed to be dispossessed and enslaved? How did the theological views of Western Christianity provide the foundation for dehumanization, racism, slavery, and even abortion?  I would like to suggest that it all began with the theological heresy of Augustine of Hippo's "Doctrine Of Original Sin" and his well known book, "City Of God Against The Pagans."  Augustine Of Hippo was a "Roman Catholic" theologian and philosopher who presided as Bishop over a north African city, which is known today as Annaba, Algeria. He is viewed by  many Western Christians as an important Church Father, whose writings influenced Western Christianity and Western Philosophy.  Many Protestants, especially Calvinists, consider him to be one of the theological fathers of the Protestant Reformation due to his teachings on “Original Sin”, “Doctrine Of Grace” and “Predestination”. The origins, roots and foundation of Augustine's claims are important to understanding how the Church engaged itself in conquering land that did not belong to them, and enslaving the indigenous "First Nations" people internationally. It even provided the foundation for the Supreme Court decision "Roe vs Wade" in 1973 which has been used to commit the largest Black Genocide in modern American History.  Augustine's Theological views dehumanized people and reduced them to NOT BEING “fully human” which justified land grabbing, slavery, and eugenics.  After all, (according this theology), what do you do with all those "free laborers" when you have no more use for them?

Interment Camps (Reservations) owned by The US Government!

Our modern prison populations, our concentration camps of dispossessed Native people, and all abortion practices advanced by our government today have a sure foundation in Augustine of Hippo’s written positions. These positions were brought into our nation's founding by the Puritans of New England, Anglican and Baptist Calvinists of Virginia, and The Ulster Scott Presbyterians of New Jersey. All Euro-Centrists, whether religious refugees or colonial planters, came with the belief that God had predestined them to a "Promised Land" complete with free land and free labor. This land of opportunity had a sure foundation for Augustine's vision in his classic work, "City Of God Against The Pagans", to be built on the shores of America by European Calvinists. Funny how history, theology, and philosophy provides the basis for our established customs and practices as a people group. WHAT WE BELIEVE DOES MATTER! As we look at Augustine's views and how it impacted the Calvinists of Northern Europe in their colonization of America, we need to remind ourselves that just as the German people need to keep the history of the Jewish Holocaust ever before their eyes; we the "Body Of Christ" need to remember, lament, acknowledge and repent for the role of the Church's involvement in land grabbing, colonization, establishing residential schools, and racial segregation!  Lamentations 5:7 says, "Our fathers sinned, and are not; And we have borne their iniquities."  In other words, what ran in our forefathers, still runs in us. We carry within ourselves attitudes and cultural assumptions that began in the theology of the Western Church and if these views are left unchallenged, we will only perpetuate the influences and wounds of the past. “RACIAL RECONCILIATION” is the defining moral issue of our time!

Please Read The Third Verse Of The Star Spangled Banner!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,

A home and a country, should leave us no more?

Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Rob Corcoran, author of "TrustBuilding: An Honest Conversation On Race, Reconciliation, and Responsibility" states, "We can all think of people whom we regard as being "inside" our circle and others who are "outside." As we begin, we need to remember that in the early colonial period of our nation, African Americans were made to sit separated from the whites in most congregations.  White's today love the idea of breaking down racial barriers in the life of the church as long as the African American people come over to their Euro-centric churches. But how many whites would leave their white safe houses and join the membership of a predominately African American church? Remember, African Americans have tried to be part of white congregations for generations already. Would we find white flight in churches if they came over in vast numbers today? This ought to give us insight into how we really value racial integration. Understanding our racial discomforts ought to focus on questions like:  How do we begin a "sacred conversation" in the Body Of Christ that doesn't allow people to duck the issue?  What deliberate prophetic actions can we take as God's people to force people to become accountable and steward our relationships with one another well? 

A number of years ago, I was ministering in a church with a mutual well known ministry friend.  We were both speakers at a major youth conference with some 2000 kids from all over the Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota region.  During the conference the host pastor pulled me aside to explain that he objected to my ministry friend teaching with me in the conference.  I asked him "why" since my friend was one of the best youth communicators in the world.  He replied, "Because your friend doesn't believe in the 'Doctrine Of Original Sin!" I couldn't believe it.  So I sat down with my friend and asked him to explain why someone would make such a claim against him.  This is where I first learned that what I had been taught in both my own Christian upbringing and in seminary was based in Augustinianism. I had never heard the views my friend had shared with me that day.  However, after studying and learning about it for myself - I've concluded it is the most deceptive doctrine ever embraced in the church today.  I was raised in it and never once ever questioned Augustinianism.  What did Augustine believe and why is this so important in our discussion on race today? Most Christians know nothing about this former church theologian who had a very difficult time with his sexual addiction.  It's no wonder Roman Catholic priest and other denominations have sexual problems to deal with among their clergy.

Without spending a lot of in-depth time in documenting my research for this blog, let me just share the fact that Augustine of Hippo believed that the original sin committed in the Garden of Eden had to do with Adam and Eve's sexual engagement with one another before they were mature enough. He, along with his friend St. Ambrose, held to a view that sexual pleasure was a sin and that all sex was for pro-creation only. They believed and taught that sex should not be pursued for sexual pleasure.  Augustine described sexual pleasure as bondage to lust (or concupiscence) Concupiscence is a term referring to  a strong, compelling desire,especially like sexual lust which he struggled with throughout his priestly duties within the Roman Catholic Church.  With his interactions with St. Ambrose who held similar understanding, As a result, Augustine came to believe that if a man and woman experienced sexual pleasure (orgasm) and a child was conceived during this moment that child was born in sin.  From this Augustine formed his theological doctrine which later became known by Calvinist as the "Total Depravity of man."  According to Augustine, when we are lusting (be it a sexual lust or lust for things), we are in bondage and held captive to that lust.

He believed that because we were Totally depraved that no human effort or agency could free us from that "lust" except through God's gracious work of salvation.  Later John Calvin (A former Augustinian Roman Catholic priest) became a father of the European protestant movement.  As he engaged with European protestants, who were homeless throughout Europe due to the Roman Catholic counter-reformation movement, he taught them that God had predestined, a place, for those displaced to live.  As they began to resettle their lives in other northern European countries, they concluded that Calvin was right and they were the "predestinated" ones.  They went from being taught that God had a place for them to believing they were God's chosen people who had been brought to a promise land.  So, what does this have to do with our discussion on race?  Simply put, Augustinianism had found a place in which the City Of God Against A Pagan world could now be established.  Geneva, Switzerland would become that place where European Christian Empire building would begin for protestants.  New England's puritans would later set out from Holland to finish what Calvin's Geneva didn't get done.  Boston was to become that "City On A Hill" or beacon to the pagan nations. Of course to undermine, disagree, or fight against it meant lynching, being burned at the stake, whipping, your tongue being cut out, or genocide.  There was no way an unrighteous person would be left in charge of this new God-given nation! This is the history of John Winthrop's Augustinian dream for New England. Sound cynical?  No it's diabolical and true.  Early, New England and Virginian Calvinist believed that they had been predestinated, chosen by God and given a new land to begin again.  Of course, they preached the Gospel to the heathen, pagans, and unchristian in the land but for those who did not respond to this good news only served as evidence that they had been predestined for hell and needed to be ruled over to control their evil impulses since their was nothing of God within them (Total Depravity of Man).  The Doctrine of The Total Depravity of Man means there is nothing good within us.  Humanity is completely separated from God and not fully human (since God withdrew himself from their sinful nature).  This is called dehumanization.  If you are dehumanized and predestinated to be nothing more than a pagan or heathen you have no appeal for salvation or rights or privileges to those who have been chosen by God.  This became the basis for dispossessing the land.  After all, didn't Joshua dispossess the land of Canaan? 

Let me be clear, what has been called the righteous roots of America have led many Church leaders and members down through our history, into believing that African and Native American people (non-whites ) were to be subjugated to the “godly rule of the elect.”  Since they were predestinated for hell and Euro-centric leaders were predestinated by God (like ancient Israel) - they felt justified in their slave-holding and land grabbing “European Exceptionalism”, which later would become our “American Exceptionalism.” So, in effect, according to this mindset, “Black Lives Don't Matter” and “Native American Lives Don't Matter” either.  They remain on unequal legal footing in most “Eurocentric Entitlement” minds.  May I simply ask, when did God ever promise our Founding Fathers a new Promised Land?  Where is the National Covenant that our Christian leaders claim we have recorded?  What right did our European forefathers have in dispossessing the land of it's inhabitants and enslaving people to enrich themselves?  It’s all embodied in an “Augustinian Document” known as the “Doctrine of Discovery.”  The planting of the flag at Cape Henry was an English declaration to the Spanish and Portuguese that the King of England and his Church would do that dirty work of converting or killing the inhabitants of the land. It meant that this was their new land under the charter they had been issued and they were depending on their cooperation (and all other nations), to honor their claim and go elsewhere. It is amazing when the Native Americans or descendants of the slaves get worked up about their rights, how quickly the Church wants to pray II Chronicles 7:14 as a basis for the "Healing of Their Land."  How on earth can a land stolen from it's pagan inhabitants and justified by a story of the Hebrew people and their covenant with God (as though we are one and the same people), BE HEALED; by just quoting and praying that scripture?  We certainly, have a lot to do with the ignorance and claim that “All Lives Matter.”

Birmingham 1963

Here is some food for thought:  

Ferguson, Missouri 2015

The same police Actions taken during the non-violent march in Birmingham in 1963 were taken in Ferguson, Missouri in 2015. What is different about either of these events?  How has the training of police improved since the Rodney King beatings in 1992?

The American Church has a history in supporting dehumanization, slavery and racism. What has it done in acknowledging and repenting of it's sin?  Why is it still teaching Augustinianism?  Why does it think God is calling for a "City Of God" to be built here on earth?  

Here's a very unique thought. William Penn and the early Quakers of Pennsylvania believed that "There is that of God in every person."  Is it possible that God created humanity and pronounced it good!  Is it possible that the Bible teaches that God breathed into Adam the breath of life and he became a living soul - means as long as we keep breathing there is something of God in all of us?  What kind of theology would that reproduce in the American Church?  Maybe we need to explore the merits of Quaker theology - explore its work in peace-making and reconciliation, honoring dissent, and believing that God is already at work in every human heart.  Maybe we should call the entire "Body of Christ" to renounce Augustinianism and Calvinism since it seems to be the foundational problem to all dehumanization, slavery and racism in America today!

Racism In The American Church: Enough!

So, this morning I woke up to the tragic news that policemen were gunned down in Dallas, Texas, during a peaceful demonstration, led as a result of African Americans being unjustly shot by police officers in Baton Rouge, LA and Minneapolis, MN.  A morning news commentator raised concern that our nation was on the verge of major riots similar to those in 1968 after the gunning down of Dr. Martin Luther King. A very dear friend of mine and prominent African American Bishop recently shared with me that he was concerned that by the end of Summer, 2016 our nation was going to see an eruption of violence similar to those in the aftermath of Dr. King's assassination.  It is these predictive elements that should lead all of us in The Body of Christ to prayer, address any racism in our own hearts, and call us; to begin having a sacred conversation on race all across America - church by church, city by city.  

In July of 1992, After returning from ministering at Hillsong in Australia, I found myself landing at LAX during the Rodney King beating aftermath.  East LA was in flames.  Every flight was canceled and I was stuck in the airport staring at the TV screens watching the violence break out in the streets. Smoke had so overwhelmed the east part of LA, that the airport had to be shut down. As I stood there, I quietly asked the Holy Spirit why I was stuck there and could not get a flight out to go home after 14 hours of traveling back from Sydney.  The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Do you see this?" (referring to the news on the TV screens) I said, "Yes, Lord."  He continued and said, "This is what the cities of America are going to look like if you don't go home and shut down that ‘Principality’ over that city I have sent you to”. Everything I saw that day brought back the images of the 1968 riots, cities burning and police brutality that I had witnessed as a child growing up in the Philadelphia, PA area.  Overwhelmed and realizing that God had sent me to Annapolis, Maryland (with its history of being a slave port), I realized that my assignment from God was not just to win people to Christ or to build a great church.  I am a White pastor and I was sent to Annapolis to do the work of prayer, intercession, healing and racial reconciliation for America's sake.  I have worked for this, in my context, for the last 25 years in the face of ridicule, church opposition, and blatant racism in the American Church.  On the one hand, I know that I have been engaged in the work of reconciliation while at the same time feeling like I've made little to no progress with the (“White Privileged”) Body of Christ, living in denial. African American and Native American Church leaders have spent years trying to redress the "racism" that runs not only in our nation but in the American Church.  This morning as I witnessed again, the violence that is occurring every day on our streets, I have an overwhelming sense of failure.  What is it going to take for the American Church to wake up and address its own racism and get engaged in their communities to lead the way for "Racial Reconciliation?"  

Before President Barack Obama ran for the presidency, God showed me that he would become the President of the United States. When God showed me "why" he was putting President Obama in the White House, he said to me, "I am placing this man in the White House to bring to the surface ALL the racism hidden under the surface of the nation."  Sure enough, that is what happened. The sad thing is, I've heard many "White Leaders", even proclaim - it's his fault.  They claimed, that our President has stirred up all this racial hatred. My only response has been to say Jude 1 warns the Body of Christ not to speak evil of dignitaries.  I Timothy 2:2 states "To pray for kings and all who are in authority, SO THAT we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity."  As I immediately shared this with my own Church and others in our community and called for prayer I began to face opposition.  I couldn't believe it.  I was called a political liberal, was cut off from relationships, and watched in horror as many Christian Leaders and Church people blasphemed and damned the President of the United States, instead of praying and supporting him.  After all he is our President. Right?  Some people responded to me and said, “Well he's not my President!  I didn't vote for him.”  I have watched for the last eight years, Christians engaged in saying he's not American because he wasn't born here; even though he was clearly born in Hawaii and his mother was American!  They said; “He was born in Kenya, he's a Muslim, and is not a Christian!”  So, what if he was? Does that make him any less American?  Doesn't the Constitution of the United States guarantee the freedom of ALL religion? What's wrong with Kenya? I have many Christian friends and ministers from Kenya and Africa. They are delightful.  I spent two days with Dr. Jeremiah Wright, A distinguished member of the clergy in The United Church of Christ. This man was President Obama's pastor and is born-again, loves the Lord with all his heart, and is a prolific preacher. He experienced a huge character assassination by the US media, the political establishment, and right-winged, conservative Christian church.  Even though, many may not share his theological perspectives, he embodies everything the United Church of Christ stands for.  In my private conversation with him, He told me that he led President Obama to Christ.  He told me that he mentored President Obama in his faith.  He told me he officiated the marriage of the Obama's and baptized their children.  President Obama was a member of "Trinity United Church of Christ" in Chicago for over 22 years.  Even if he was a Muslim?  He became a Christian.  A famous Christian football player, who won the Heisman Trophy, who meets with the President on a regular basis told me clearly, our President is born again, but said that he did not have the same theological or biblical perspective as President Obama had.  So what?  If you disagree with The United Church of Christ - it doesn't mean that it is not a Christian perspective.  

When the birther movement couldn't prove his being born in Kenya, they tried to say he was born in Indonesia like something is wrong being born there. I have dear friends who I have ministered with from Indonesia. Is Indonesia any different than Fiji, Korea, or Japan? We are the Body of Christ. We are not a part of The HOLY Roman empire nor part of a Christian American empire! Our citizenship may be from an earthly nation but we are members of the Kingdom of God. That's what matters. It is not a kingdom of this world. We should not be engaged in America's civil religion, we should be engaged in winning Americans to Christ, not to a political party or view. Barack Obama was born as an American citizen because his mother was an American.  He was raised in Kansas by his WHITE grandparents.  The amazing thing to me is these same Christians didn't say former presidential candidate Senator John McCain wasn't American (He was born in Panama).  They didn't say former presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz wasn't American even though he was born and raised in Canada.  His father was Cuban and his mother American.  He held dual citizenship until he ran for public office.  So why has President Obama been singled out?  Remember he's half white too!  All this has its foundation in racism. President Obama is not American or Un-American because his father was from Kenya. He's an American because his mother, Anne Dunham, (1942-1995) was an American.  She had a PhD in Economic Anthropology from the University of Hawaii. Something you never hear in the “American White Privileged Church!” It's appalling how many even questioned President Obama's education. His White mother I am sure encouraged her son to get his education. But, those same racists who challenged his birth records probably thought his mother was some kind of white trash too! Bet you didn't know that to address the problem in rural villages, in developing nations, she created micro-credit programs while working as a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development. Bet you didn't know that the whole reason President Obama spent part of his early life in Indonesia was largely due to his mother being employed by the Ford Foundation in Jakarta. Maybe you will also be shocked to learn that President Dwight D Eisenhower's mother was African-American? Yet, he never faced such disrespect.  It all has its foundation in racism.  President Obama is not American or Un-American because the Church is caught up in racism

Why is this all important?  Because God is "exposing the hidden works of darkness", Ephesians 5:11 exhorts the Body of Christ to "not have fellowship with the unfruitful hidden works of darkness."  Racism is a manifestation of the hidden works of darkness within us.  I am deeply disturbed by the "White" Church's reluctance to address its own racist European roots.  The European Church which came to American soil in the beginnings of the 17th Century did so under charters granted by European kings who base their colonization efforts on a 16th Century papal decree known as The Doctrine of Discovery.  This racist document was based on Augustine's "City of God" and his own sexually perverted mind.  For the White Church not to acknowledge this, repent of this, and even confront this heresy is unbelievable.  

God is dealing with the iniquity of the land. Leviticus 18:25 says, "The land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants." We are witnessing Ezekiel 9:9; "The sins of the people of Israel and Judah are very, very great. The entire land is full of murder; the city is filled with injustice. They are saying, 'The LORD doesn't see it! The LORD has forsaken the land!'"

In my upcoming writing, “Roots of Calvinism: Foundation for Dehumanization, Racism and Slavery in America (Part 2)”, I intend to demonstrate that Augustinianism provided the foundation for the “Doctrine of Discovery” which was the basis of all charters granted to those who colonized America, committed genocide against the Native Americans, then dispossessed them of their lands, and worked to create a permanent slave class in America.  This hideous Church doctrine unleashed the principalities on our nation.  Matthew 18:18 states very clearly, "Whatsoever, you bind on earth is bound in heaven; whatsoever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven." The Church is responsible for the prevailing demonic spirits that hold our nation captive today.  Why is Sunday morning the most segregated time in America?  

Many White Christians would agree that we need to end segregation in the church - hoping that African-Americans would join their churches.  But what if God wanted the White community to leave their comfortable suburban churches and join an African American Church and be the minority in the congregation?  I believe that God's finger is on the Church to lead the way forward.  If the Church doesn't address its own racism, how do we expect the Church be an effective witness to the nation? It's time!  

If we neglect the challenges of our time right now, the Civil Rights Movement will be set back for another 50 years.  Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was gunned down by the American Government.  On December 8, 1999, There was a trial in Memphis, Tennessee, with a jury that deliberated and concluded, that the government was guilty for the assassination of Rev. King. (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mlks-family-feels-vindicated) The King family received an official apology letter from the government and a $100 check for reparations for his death. Where was the Church?  How come the Church has not led the way of fulfilling the "I Have a Dream" prophetic word given in August, 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial that was uttered by Pastor King?     
     

What message does our education send to the African American community each year during Black History month or in our public school textbooks about the assassinations of Malcolm X and Dr. King? They speak of no other major leaders or great contributors from the African American community; just Malcom X and Dr. King. Might those who want to continue in their status of "White Privilege" in our education system, just want to remind them – “You get out of line, like they did, and this is what will happen to you?  It's unthinkable that 150 years after slavery, our nation is still entangled in this mess.  We need the Lord to intervene in the affairs of our nation now, more than ever before.  Racism is not something you were born with.  It is taught.  It's time for the Church to stand up and lead our nation into a National Day of Repentance and Reconciliation that goes beyond the words, beyond the prayers, and into action!  We need to win our nation to Christ! 

Not Many Fathers: The Need For A New Apostolic Revolution!

There's a very powerful scripture in I Corinthians 4:15-17 which reads, "Even if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me. That is why I have sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which is exactly what I teach everywhere in every church.…"  Recent statics now show that over half of the millennial generation of the children growing up in the United States are being raised without their father's being present in their homes.  If ever there was a need for the church - the time is now!  We need Men Of God who will take on the responsibility to "Father" this current generation.  They need affirmation, identity, and purpose.  Every family has an assignment.  Every generation has a purpose.  The church is being called by God to "father" this current generation.

What does it mean to be a father?  Proverbs 1:8-9 outlines a very powerful reason why fathering is important.  "My son, hear the instruction of your father, and forsake not teachings of your mother.  "For they shall be a crown about your head and a gold chain around your neck." In all my discipleship groups I have taught many young men that Fathers always instruct their children in the "Whats and hows of life."  Mothers teach the "whys.' God designed men to be fathers who teach their children how to get that gold chain around their neck.  Women, as mothers, were designed by God to teach their children how to think through the "whys" of life.  That's what proverbs means by saying "her teachings will be a graceful garland about your head."  When one parent is absent, like fathers, kids are left to guessing about what to do or how to do the things they need to do in life.  When a mother is absent from the home, kids grow up not knowing the "why's" which brings understanding and wisdom to their thinking processes.  The current challenge in American life are "women who think they can raise their children alone without a father" and those who advocate that "those who are same-sex couples can parent children without a parent of the opposite sex."  Both views are tragic and will reap long-term detrimental effects on their kids future.  God designed life to work a certain way and when we mess with that design it gets all of us in trouble every time. With all this being said, this particular installment on my blog has to do with my real concern. -The absence of true apostolic and prophetic ministry in the church today. 


Revelation 2:2 explains a practice that was found in the early church that seems to have gotten lost. "...You put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false."  There are many people claiming to be "Apostles" today that have never shown evidence of what a true apostle is - One who brings order, discipline, management, and a work ethic into the house instead of a sense of entitlement.  The church instead of testing and finding those who are false - advocates that anybody can be an apostle by just claiming it.  Apostles are, first and foremost, fathers of the faith.  I Timothy 3:5 states very clearly, "For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God's church?" All you have to do to identify a true apostolic leader is look at their children.  If your children are acting out in unethical and immoral behavior (even as adults) it is reflective of the values that were advocated in the home.  Identifying a person as an apostle, according to scripture, isn't measured by the size of a crowd that can be gathered - it's measured by the evidence of an ability to father. It also is evidenced in how a father has honored his own father.  You can't ask your kids to do something you haven't practiced. If you want to see if a man is a true father in the faith, look at his kids. Sounds a bit harsh, but I didn't write this stuff and I've always had this "goal" of being a good father and leader in front of me as a goal to attain.I have worked and continue to work hard at being a good father.  There are no perfect people. There is no one who is righteous, however, if you're going to claim to be an apostolic leader (Bishop) this was the criteria of a true apostle according to the apostle Paul. All you have to do is look at a man's kids and it explains everything you need to know about his house.  

Recently,  I attended a "invitation only" private event with Donald Trump and Dr. Ben Carson in New York City.  During our time together Former Governor Mike Huckabee pointed out "how great" Donald Trump's family were together off stage and out of the sight of the press. He went on to say, "Your kids are great."  How did that happen?  Mr. Trump smiled and said, "My kids are great people. They always have been."  However, I have always told them,"No alcohol, no drugs, no smoking!"  "I also ensured that they were in Sunday School regularly at the First Presbyterian church in Jamaica, New York." "Mr Trump continued, I don't understand this thing about making Sunday school optional. Kids need to go to church."  His son Erik was there and acknowledged what his father said. Mr. Trump was raised in Marble Collegiate Church under Dr. Norman Vincent Peale as his pastor which influenced his thinking on parenting as well.  Proverbs 17:6 says: "Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers."  Your family life, as imperfect as it is, can bring great results through good parenting. This is probably our greatest work in life- to raise our kids well. Donald Trump, like many American's, has gone through divorce yet his kids lives speaks volumes about who he is.  Even though there are so many Christians railing against President Barrack Obama, all you have to do is look at his kids and you can see what kind of man he is. Even though he was raised by his single mother and his grandparents, his life evidences that kids from broken homes don't necessarily have to pass on the adverse things they faced as kids when their father was absent.  You can change a nation by being a father to one kid from a broken home.  I'm a case in point.

I was raised in a twice divorced home.  I think I turned out okay.  However, I am not an apostle nor do I aspire to become one. Yet, I need to share with you how I learned to become a good father. My mother saw to it that I was "fathered." She ensured that the man who fathered me was my grandfather- my father's father. I am the evidence that bears witness to John Thomas Berry's crowning achievement - a man who loves and serves the Lord. He wasn't even a preacher. He worked for the Pennsylvania railroad and Amtrak.  From the time I was a little kid, he took me to church every Sunday. Every weekend he insured that I was exposed to him reading the scripture to me or getting me around the Body Of Christ where other fathers studied the word together with their kids - Father's who led by example on how to be a godly father.  My pastor's were great father's and lead our church by example.  Our church had many fathers - who sought to come along side of me and assure my success as a fatherless young man.  My mother also ensured that her brothers invested themselves in my life.  I grew up with great men around me.  So, I had all these references for how to father others.  Fathering is a serious matter.  

• Leviticus 19:3 (ESV) "Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father."
• Proverbs 30:17 ESV The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.
• Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (ESV) “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Although, I don't advocate getting a kid "stoned" today, Lol, I have no problems with mothers and fathers disciplining their rebellious kids. If Donald Trump can parent children well you can too. Notice in the above Deuteronomist passage that the kids were brought before the Elders for their disobedience, lack of compliance, and disrespecting their parents. They were punished by the elders and faith community for not being willing to address their own addictive behaviors, disrespect, and disobedience to authority. An acquaintance of mine, Australian Entrepreneur, Dr. Peter Daniel once told me that he would never hire a young man who had a bad relationship with his father because that young man would disrespect him as an employer.  The Church is the only place anyone can go today to teach the values necessary for a God-pleasing life.  What other institution will empower and equip young people with the lifeskills necessary for true biblical success?

Why were these parents, in early Hebrew history, able to turn to their faith community and entrust the elders to address situations like this? Because the Elders were "fathers" themselves. True fathers of the faith are not afraid to do what is necessary to address the "Rebellion and disobedience" within their faith community. Church discipline is rare but has always demonstrated to our faith communities what is acceptable behavior and what is not acceptable behavior. The message of the gospel is a calling to grow up, overcome evil and become fathers.  (See I John 2:11-13) Notice that the kids would not respond to their Father's voice. 

One of my dear ministry friends, Dr. Jeff Edwards, was praying one day and he asked the Lord, "Lord, why don't you speak to men and women of God about the excesses and imbalances in the Body Of Christ?"  The Lord snapped back at him and said, "My voice is no longer important to them!" Jeff continued, "Well, Lord, then what voice is important to them?"  The Lord said to him, "whatever voice says they are successful."  Because of fatherlessness, people will seek out to build their own brands in order to validate themselves and portray that they are successful. Because they were not affirmed by their own fathers or a father in the faith the voice of the Lord is not important to them. This is why we need a true "apostolic" spirit in the church today. The Body Of Christ is suffering from an Orphan Spirit and is just taking on what the culture says is success instead of how God defines it.  It's all about the brand in the shop window not what is in the stockroom!

May I suggest that the real reason Christians are no longer listening and obeying the voice of the Lord comes from the root problem of fatherlessness. When we disrespect our natural father's voice and disqualify them we often end up refusing to any fathering voice. This shows up in the public school, the workplace and even in the church. If we had true apostolic leaders today, people would entrust by their leaders and faith communities to reinforce their family values with their kids who out of control.  No, instead today we have leaders today who overlook all kinds of immoral and addictive behavior in their churches and often advocate it in the name of cultural relevancy. Yet, they call themselves Apostles. 

Let me be very clear, if the leadership of a church excuses immoral and unethical behavior in the name of being culturally relevant you can be sure that - that church is being led by false apostles, false prophets, and/or false teachers. True apostolic authority is evidenced in people's lives being transformed by "putting off" our old adamic nature" and putting on the nature of Christ. (See Eph. 4:17-22) Jesus said, My sheep listen to me; I know them and they follow me. (See John 10:27)  This is why we need true "Prophets" in the Body of Christ also. They are God's voice of accountability in the life of the church. They teach people how to listen and obey the Voice of The Lord in their lives." They are not fortune tellers!  Years ago, Rock Church's own Rev. Betty Forbes said, "if you can't be obedient to the laws of the land, you can't be obedient to the Lord. If you can't obey the speed limit on the sign, you can't be obedient the Lord!" Check yourself an see if you can drive within the speed limit ALL the time.  It will show you the condition of your heart.

In all my discipleship groups, the first textbook we read and review is, Watchmen Knee's book entitled, "Spiritual Authority." This book was written to address our rebellion towards authority and to heal our relationship to authority. Every time I've gone through this text with the guys I have discipled, I have watched their lives transform or they bolt from the group because they have such conflict within themselves regarding their natural fathers they can't handle getting things right. I Corinthians 4:5 states that God comes to bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. When young men or women have unresolved issues with their parents they have to make a choice to forgive them or remain in their pain.  80% of the young men I have discipled have been fatherless - either no father at home or with fathers who abdicated their responsibilities in fathering them.  Either way, I have had difficulty in discipling some of them, because they were not parented well. Discipleship has become a necessary re-parenting for the fatherless. This is why there is a need for true apostolic ministry. We need fathers! If young men don't get their relationship with their natural father's fixed they will have difficulty in obeying the Lord and heeding his voice. If the young man has never had an example to follow, how will he learn how to be a father to his own kids?  When a father tells a son what to do and the kid answers "Why?"  Most father's will answer, "Because I said so!"  Knowing that no explanation is necessary - most kids understand that there father's answer implies a threat if they don't comply.  This is what the scripture's defines as discipline.  Hebrews 12:8 says "If you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons."  As God continues to restore his church in the 21st century - He will once again restore a fathering spirit. (See Mal. 4:6)  

The most rewarding part of my life as a pastor has always been forming small discipleship groups with about 4 to 6 (Pre-christian or barely Christian) young men to disciple them for 18 months.  As I said earlier we start with Watchmen Knee's book for 22 weeks, then we read and outline the entire bible in four months, then spend the remaining time working on "healing our relationships with God, our parents, and others." They learn how to become the men God intended for them to be.  I also do everything I can from the beginning to "clear out" those who are not serious. When I hear these young men begin to question the group or myself with too many  "Why" questions, I know immediately they have been raised by their mother and that their father's were absent from their lives. They always have trouble in their relationships because they weren't fathered by their fathers.  They tend to be rebellious and constantly faced with turmoil.  However, I love every moment of time I get to be a spiritual father to them.  I have been a great father to my own girls and I have been a great spiritual father to the young men that God has brought into my life.  A good evidence that my parenting skills work is when I watch these young men individuate by pushing up against me. Individuation is not rebellion.  These young men need to mature and become who God intended them to be.  They are not called to me. They are called to follow Christ. Sometimes it's been painful to go through - but in the long term I know I have done a good job in fathering them

So, in light of all I've said, If anyone claims to be an Apostle - look at his kids and even grandkids to see if they exhibit what they Bible claims are the true marks of Apostolic ministry.  Like many of you, I'm pretty sick of this "false" apostlic movement who neither demonstrates a fathering spirit in their churches nor  in their own homes.  It's time for church leadership to be disciplined and true apostolic order to be brought in.  If their is anything that rises up within that pushes back at what I've written - you need to ask yourself:  "What is that thing in me that makes me react?  What does it have to do with my own relationship with my natural father?  Answering these questions for yourself can be very revealing. When you have difficulty at work with you employer, manager, or those even in leadership in church life - you need to ask those same to questions and find out what "root" is in you that is bearing negative responses to those God has place in your life to hold you accountable. Who do you make yourself accountable to?  I John 2:13 says "I write to your fathers because you have known him from the beginning." Kids know their father's voice! They can even hear it in their head long after he has gone onto to be with the Lord. If you can't submit, become accountable, listen and obey the voice of authority in your own life - you need to ask yourself - why the voice of the Lord is not important to you anymore?