TXAB: The Christ Almighty Blog

It’s odd: Lots of people believe in spirits. Christians do too, ’cause God’s a spirit, Jn 4.24 and angels are spirits. He 1.14 We also figure the spirits of dead loved ones exist in the afterlife —or heaven, as many people imagine. Yet many of these very same people refuse to believe in evil spirits. I used to say this mindset comes from Platonism. Plato of Athens taught if we could only escape this world of matter and decay, and just become pure spirit, all our self-centered impulses, greed, materialism, lusts, and so forth would simply cease to exist. We wouldn’t have ’em anymore; they were embedded in our flesh, but without that flesh we’d be nothing but good. Plato’s not the first to believe this junk; plenty of other cultures teach the same thing. Present-day folks who believe it, don’t necessarily believe it ’cause of Plato’s reasoning—heck, they don’t have any reasoning behind it. They simply believe all spirits are good… because it never occurred to them spirits

SIN sɪn noun. Immoral behavior—as defined by religious morality. 2. Violation of God’s law or known will. 3. A reprehensible action, or serious shortcoming. 4. A state of human nature in which one is alienated from God. 5. verb. To commit a sin, offense, or fault. [Sinful 'sɪn.fəl adjective. ] I used to think it was a copout when Christians claimed they weren’t entirely sure what “sin” meant, or is. Sometimes yeah, they’re trying to weasel out of something: They’re sinning their brains in, and don’t care to define their behavior as sin, so they’re hoping to either plead ignorance, or get us to admit there’s some kind of gray area, and grant them some leeway. But too often, I’ve found nobody ever spelled it out for them when they were new Christians. Nobody ever sat the newbies down and told ’em, “Here’s what sin is.” I grew up Christian, and they absolutely told us kids what sin is—and to not do it!—but churches tend to forget adults didn’t always have that up

Christians lie. No we’re not supposed to. There’s a whole teaching about this. It’s actually not the “don’t bear false witness ” command, Ex 20.16 which has to do with perjury. It’s the one about how Christians need to be rid of lying, and tell the truth to one another. Ep 4.25 But we lie just the same. Usually to get out of trouble. Sometimes to defraud. And sometimes when we debate with antichrists, and wanna score points, we borrow a rather common tactic we see in politics: We ignore whether our “facts” are all that factual. Oh, we wish they were factual, ’cause they really help our case. We’ll psyche ourselves into believing they’re factual. We’re willing to dismiss any evidence which says it’s false knowledge. We’re totally willing to perpetuate fraud. Yeah, it’s fraud. There’s a command against that too. Mk 10.19 But Christians dismiss this particular sin, ’cause we figure it’s so important to win these arguments, score victories for Jesus… and really stick i

Revelation 12. One of the popular myths about the devil is how Satan used to be an angel. Not that it pretends to be one, 2Co 11.14 but straight-up was one—the mightiest angel in the heavens, named Lucifer. Got deposed, but it used to be a big, big deal. I’ve challenged many a Christian to actually read their bibles and prove any of this theory from scripture. And I gotta give ’em credit; they do try. But they don’t succeed. It says nowhere in the scriptures Satan used to be an angel. Doesn’t even say Satan was a heavenly being; we just presume so because Satan appeared before God in Job , and we’re kinda assuming they were all in heaven, or thereabouts, at the time. ( Job never says where they were.) Satan’s species is never once identified. Given Satan’s reputation as a liar, Jn 8.44 I’m mighty suspicious about any stories about its origin, like the Lucifer story, which try to make Satan look like it was a big deal at one time. Or still is. During Jesus’s temp

Since the bible doesn’t include an origin story for the devil, Christians just made one up. Isaiah 14.12-15 Where’d the devil come from? Bible doesn’t say. No it doesn’t . I know; popular Christian culture insists the devil’s origins are totally spelled out in the bible. When I ask ’em to point me to chapter and verse, they gotta track it down—really, they gotta Google the word “Lucifer”—but that’s where they invariably point me. Here , they insist, is where the devil went wrong. Isaiah 14.12-15 KJV 12 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13 For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. 15 Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pi

Yes, Satan exists. But in both popular and Christian culture, Satan has been profoundly misrepresented. It’s intentional. Like Sunzi said in The Art of War , all warfare is based on deception. True of spiritual warfare as well. The devil gets a leg up on us humans by making us believe all sorts of disinformation. Like the popular rubbish that it used to be the highest angel in heaven, second to God himself. There’s no evidence at all for this in the scriptures; it’s entirely taken from Paradise Lost . Yet people still claim it’s in the bible somewhere, and come up with the darnedest proof texts as “evidence.” Talk about lying on your résumé; in fact if you were hiring Satan at your business and found absolutely nothing in a background check, you’d be far more likely to believe your applicant’s a dirty liar, than people do Satan—who’s a known dirty liar. But a mighty successful one. Which is why Christians still think it’s an angel of light, instead of how Paul and Ti

There’s a really popular, common idea in our culture: Spiritual things are good, and material things are bad. It comes from Greek philosophy, though the Greeks were hardly the first to believe it. It’s found pretty much everywhere. Plenty of pagans insist every spirit being must be an angel, and good. Therefore we must always, always take their advice, and never wonder whether any of them are evil. ’Cause why would there be any such thing as an evil spirit? They’re spirits . Duh. Regardless of its origins, Christians have totally bought into this idea. In part because we think we see it in the bible. Romans 8.5-8 NRSV 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not su

Matthew 12.38-45 • Luke 11.24-26. Previously I wrote about how some Sadducees and Pharisees in Dalmanuthá approached Jesus demanding a sign, and Jesus’s response was to say they’d get the Jonah sign, and nothing more. But Matthew has a second version of this story, where Pharisee scribes approached him for a sign, and Jesus likewise said they’d get no more than the Jonah sign—then tacked on an odd little story about an evil spirit leaving a person, and coming back later. Luke tacks this lesson to when people accused Jesus of throwing out evil spirits with Satan’s power, and it seems to fit rather well there. It’s a little more odd when this lesson is placed together with the people who requested a sign. People who are fascinated with evil spirits and demons —and paranoid about the possibility of being possessed by these creatures—have spent the past 20 centuries trying to glean information from this bit about how devils work. I’ve decided to include Jesus’s Matthew

There’s an traditional African folk song called “What a Mighty God We Serve.” If you grew up Christian, maybe you heard it in Sunday school. Sometimes adults sing it too. Goes like so. What a mighty God we serve What a mighty God we serve Angels bow before him Heaven and earth adore him What a mighty God we serve Years later I found out it had some more lyrics—words my children’s and youth pastors never bothered to have us sing. Maybe you can guess why. I command you Satan in the name of the Lord To take up your weapons and flee For the Lord has given me authority To walk all over thee There are variations. There’s “put down your weapons” in the second line (which makes way more sense); there’s “stomp all over thee” in the fourth, along with stomping movements. Anyway. Lots of churches tend to give these lines a miss, so lots of Christians aren’t aware of ’em. I particularly remember one summer youth camp: The pastor got all the kids to sing along with the fir

Mark 7.14-16 • Matthew 15.10-11. So Jesus is lunching with some Pharisee, who has a snit about how he and his students don’t ritually wash when they enter a home, and Jesus turns round and complains how some Pharisee rituals violate the Law. Now you do recognize it’s a common weaselly debate tactic to change the subject by attacking your opponent, but you should realize Jesus is no weasel: This wasn’t changing the subject, but getting to the very heart of why the Pharisee complained about hand-washing. He wasn’t insisting on it ’cause it offended his sensibilities, his religion, his devotion. He was doing it because it didn’t look good , which is hypocrisy of course. Too much of Pharisee custom was about appearing to follow the Law, but really following custom; the Law not so much. And as for ritual cleanliness, Jesus wanted to make it obvious the ritual didn’t make anybody or anything clean. The ritual—like all rituals, including Christian rituals —only represents w

The fear that we’re so excited to worship God, Satan might grab a toehold. Last month I had a correspondent, whom I called Fenella, object to the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”) on the grounds it’s vain repetition. Fenella’s concern is one I’ve heard dozens of times: When Christians pray something over and over and over, they figure we’re doing it to psyche ourselves into a state of euphoria. Other Christians have the very same complaint about the way certain churches do their music, or pick particularly repetitive songs: All that repetition isn’t done to praise God; it’s to whip ourselves into an altered state of consciousness. The “trance state,” as some of ’em describe it. Once we’re in this trance, they worry we’re susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. Naughty pastors might try to insert heretic ideas in our minds. Although more of these concerned Christians are more worried about demonic activity. Nevermind the fact these Christia

Ray Comfort likes this particular evangelism trick apologetics argument. He didn’t invent it though; I’ve heard it from lots of people. Whenever he’s talking Christianity with someone, he’ll ask them, “Do you consider yourself a good person?” In my experience, a number of people will actually answer no. Sometimes because they actually don’t consider themselves good people; their karmic balance leans way too far on the bad side of the scale. Sometimes because they’re just being contrary; they don’t know what’s coming next, but they anticipate you want ’em to say yes, so they’re preemptively throwing a monkey wrench into things. And sometimes they do know what‘s coming next, and definitely wanna sabotage it. But in order to keep this article moving, let’s say they answered yes. PAGAN. “Yeah, I’m a pretty good person.” APOLOGIST. [ stifling that grin you get when they take the bait ] “So if you stand before God on Judgment Day, he’ll be okay with you and let you in?” PA

And the difference between lies and falsehoods—and why certain people don’t care there’s a difference. LIE laɪ noun. Intentional untruth: A false statement involving deception, or an impression designed to be misunderstood. 2. verb. To make an intentionally false statement, present a false impression, or deceive. [Liar laɪ(.ə)r noun. ] By “lie,” most folks ordinarily mean an intentional untruth. “I floss every day,” you tell your dentist, and you totally don’t. “I think I was going 45,” you tell the traffic cop, and you know you pushed it to 60 to beat the stoplight. “I exercise,” you tell your friends, but haven’t been to the gym since the first week of January. The truth is embarrassing, or may get you into trouble, or you’re sure it won’t get you out of trouble. But when you try to get people to believe otherwise, that’d be lying. But there’s another definition of “lie” floating around. It’s grown in popularity, ’cause people use it to provoke one another. In short,

Humans die. Here’s why. The first time we read about death in the bible, it’s in the Adam and Eve story. God tasks the first adám /“human” with taking care of a garden. Which is described as edén /“delightful,” but we tend to treat that adjective as a proper name, Eden , same as we do the word for human, Adam . Unlike fast-food jobs, Adam was given free rein to eat anything he found growing there. Well, almost anything. One particular tree, you remember, was off limits. Genesis 2.15-17 KWL 15 The L ORD God took the human and set him in a delightful garden to work it and watch over it. 16 The L ORD God commanded the human, saying, “Eat, eat , from every tree of the garden. 17 From the knowing-good-and-evil tree: Don’t eat from it. For on the day you eat from it, you ’ll die, die .” Ancient Hebrew repeated itself for emphasis. “Eat, eat ” meant God was serious about Adam eating whatever he wished; “Die, die ” meant God was serious about the knowing-good-and-evil tr

The belief God and evil can’t coexist in the same universe is based on some bad logic. Every so often I bump into a nontheist who complains God can’t be real, can’t exist… because there’s such a thing as evil in the universe. Here’s how they’re figuring: If God’s real, God’s almighty, and God’s good like we Christians claim, he should’ve done something to get rid of evil, right? After all they would, if they were God. They’d have wiped out evil long ago, like with a great purging flood or something. They can’t fathom a God who’d be gracious enough to grant his wayward kids any leeway, any second chances to repent and return to the fold. He’d shut that s--- down on sight. So since God isn’t their kind of God, he must not exist. This is hardly a new idea. It’s been around since Epicurus of Athens first pitched it in the 300s BC . Or at least we think Epicurus pitched it. That’s what Christian author Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius claimed in his anti-Epicurean book

Jesus meets a man filled with thousands of demons. Mark 5.1-10 • Matthew 8.28-29 • Luke 8.26-31 Let’s begin with ancient northern Israel’s geography. First there’s Kinneret, the lake. The Galilean sea. On its northeast was the province of the Galilee, named for the word galýl /“circle,” referring to its circle of towns. Jesus lived there. On its west was the Dekápolis /“10 cities,” a region of Syrian Greek city-provinces created by the Romans after they conquered Syria in 65 BC . Jesus visited this territory often, and it’s where today’s story takes place. In Old Testament days the Dekápolis belonged to the Hebrews. Today part of it is called the Golan Heights. In Jesus’s day, even though it was full of Greek-speaking Syrians, it was still considered part of Israel, and still part of the territory Antipas Herod supervised. But it was full of gentile, Greek-enculturated pagans. They weren’t even Hebrew like the Palestinians are. By Greek-enculturated I mean they lived like G

The “ Matthew 18” principle—for when people sin against us. Luke 6.27-36 KWL 27 “But I tell you listeners: Love your enemies. Do good to your haters. 28 Bless your cursers. Pray for your mistreaters. 29 To one who hits you on the jaw, submit all the more. To one who takes your robe and tunic from you, don’t stop them . 30 Give to everyone who asks you. Don’t demand payback from those who take what’s yours. 31 Just as you want people doing for you, do likewise for them. 32 If you love your lovers, how’s this an act of grace from you?—sinners love their lovers. 33 When you benefact your benefactors, how’s this grace from you?—sinners do so themselves. 34 When you lend from one from whom you hope to receive back, how ’s this grace from you? Sinners lend to sinners so they can receive an equal payback . 35 In contrast: Love your enemies. Do good. Lend, never expecting payback . Your reward will be great, and you’ll be the Most High’s children: He’s kind to the

It’s not the same thing as sacrilege. It’s worse. Blaspheme /blæs'fim/ v. Say something about God (or holy things) which isn’t true. Slander. 2. Speak irreverently about God or holy things. Sacrilege. [Blasphemer /blæs'fim.ər/ n. , blasphemous /'blæs.fə.məs/ adj. , blasphemy /'blæs.fə.mi/ n. ] That second definition tends to be how popular culture defines blasphemy: Means the same thing as sacrilege , when one treats the sacred profanely. When you make fun, or make light, of holy things. When we tell jokes about God, or treat our bibles like any other book, and set ’em on the floor or doodle in them for fun. When people take God’s name in vain. When I treat him like my dad instead of O UR F ATHER W HICH A RT IN H EAVEN . (Heck, when I don’t capitalize all the Almighty’s pronouns. ) That’s what people consider blasphemy. That’s why they go utterly ape when Christians won’t take off our hats in church, or wear jeans. Business attire only!—and only Jesus g

Mark 3.22-27, Matthew 9.32-34, 12.22-30, Luke 11.14-23. In between Jesus’s family fearing he was overworked, Mark inserts this story about the Jerusalem scribes ( or Pharisees, in Matthew ) accusing him of performing his exorcisms through the power of the devil. Matthew and Luke tell the story in the context of an exorcism Jesus had just performed. Matthew even tells it twice. Likely this accusation took place more than once. Mk 3.22 KWL Scribes who came down from Jerusalem said Jesus had Baal Zevúl, and that he threw out demons by the head demon.   Mt 9.32-34 KWL 32 As they left, look: People brought Jesus a mute person, a demoniac. 33 Once Jesus threw out the demon, the mute man spoke. The crowd was amazed, saying, “This never appeared in Israel before .” 34 The Pharisees were saying, “ Jesus throws out demons by the head demon.”   Mt 12.22-24 KWL 22 Then they brought Jesus a blind and deaf demoniac. Jesus cured him, so the deaf man was spe

The evil spirits who get us to follow and worship ’em. One fairly common pagan belief is animism , the idea everything has a anima /“soul,” or lifeforce. No, not just things that are actually alive, like plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. Inanimate objects could have a lifeforce too. Like weather, water, or fire, which certainly act alive. Like the sun, moon, planets, and stars, which pagans actually worshiped as if they were alive. And lest you think that’s just an ancient pagan practice, look how often people still do it. People talk about the “vibe” of a place—a workplace, nightclub, school, restaurant, home, whatever. Or the luck attached to a charm or item of clothing. Or the “feels” attached to a favorite chair, blanket, toy, car. Or the “spirit” of a good idea, like charity, patriotism, wisdom, and prosperity. The ancient Greeks believed these lifeforces were intelligent beings. Like little gods. Everything important had one. They weren’t necessarily important enough