Emergent Monday - The Theology of the Christian Left

If you go to the Christian Left web site and search for Theology, you end up with one article – “Our Theology" posted a year ago. Their theology is summed up in one sentence: 

We’re not affiliated with any denomination but we fully agree with the theology of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

 According to A Handbook for Today's Disciples in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 

"the one essential is the acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and obedience to him in baptism. There is no requirement to give assent to any other statement of belief or creed. Nor is there any "official" interpretation of the Bible.

How convenient, is this a Christian flavored "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law" theology.that Aleister Crowley would be proud of? One can only ask: How do you know the Jesus Christ you serve is the Jesus Christ of the bible if you have no biblical background to understand Him by? To conveniently ignore the teachings (doctrine) of the bible is a ticket to make up your own, man based doctrine. The Disciples of Christ continue:

Hierarchical doctrine was traditionally rejected by Disciples as human-made and divisive, and subsequently, freedom of belief and scriptural interpretation allows many Disciples to question or even deny beliefs common in doctrinal churches such as the Incarnation, the Trinity, and the Atonement. 

Famous members of the Disciples of Christ include President Ronald Reagan and National Rifle Association board member and gun advocate Tom Selleck, the "Christian" Left must be wild about that. And, most tellingly, the Disciples of Christ's one display of obedience to Christ, baptism, is rejected by many on the Christian left, their emphasis is not on our faith and what we do to please God but what God does to please us. 

The "Christian" Left declares their name to be a term used to describe a spectrum of left-wing Christian political and social movements which largely embraces social justice. (keep in mind that social justice is not a religious view point, it's a political construct) or care for the poor and the oppressed. (keep in mind that most religions do extraordinary work caring for the poor, the sick, the sinners, yet the "Christian" left refuses to acknowledge their actions)

I'm not going to say that the "Christian" Left is close minded, they firmly believe what I believe - that the best way to practice prayer is outlined in Matthew 6:5-6, which is good, I congratulate them. However they completely ignore Matthew 6:1-4

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

They ignore this by constantly bellowing how much better they are than Christians because they care, 

After reading odd bits of their justification I decided to dig a little deeper into their beliefs. Keep in mind that the Christian Left is not a faith, it's a political movement hiding behind a smokescreen of faith. After studying their beliefs you'll see why I say this.

Jesus - The "Christian" Left does not believe in the divinity of Jesus, he was just a good teacher with a unique relationship with God (if, as Mark Sandlin opines, there truly is a God). They really think that their denial of His sovereignty is a good thing. They don't believe he was born of a virgin mother, and this unbelief is based on their interpretation of Zoroastrian paganism (really!) and their belief that the Hebrew word for virgin (almah) used in Isaiah 7:14 which actually means virgin does not mean virgin, In stating this they deny not only the teachings of the Bible but the teachings of Strong's Concordance.

The "Christian" Left does not believe in the Trinity. According to the "Christian" Left spokesperson Mark Sandlin the theology of the Trinity is merely a politically motivated theory. in fact the divinity of Jesus isn't important, and for his teachings on salvation and damnation? In the words of Mark Sandlin: "why do we make it so important?" No one spoke more about salvation and damnation than Jesus, and the "Christian" left choses to ignore it because they decided it's not so important?

And as for all that Jesus talk about being cast into the lake of fire? That's just crazy talk to the "Christian" Left, they claim that Jesus never said Hell was a bad place! ("Christian" Leftists: Please ignore Matthew 18:8, Mark 9:47-48. Matthew 25:46, Matthew 13:42, Matthew 25:41, Revelation 19:20, Revelation 20:14, Revelation 20:15, Revelation 21:8, those verses will shake your "faith") The "Christian" left believes that when Jesus said "Hades" he was speaking more of an annihilationism construct rather than the actual Hell that they fervently deny exists. According to spokesperson Mark Sandlin Hades is just being dead. No Heaven, no Hell, Hades is just the grave and we're all going to end up there. Inconveniently for the "Christian" Left Jesus spoke of Hades in a way that they fervently deny in Luke 16:19-31.

Salvation - The "Christian" Left does not address salvation, it's not mentioned on their official web site, nor is it implied. "Christian" Left blogger Keith Goss considers accepting Christ as your savior "formulaic" and states that he is uncomfortable around someone who does.

Satan - The "Christian" Left does not address Satan, it's not mentioned on their official web site. This is very odd considering that no one in the bible speaks more about Satan than Christ. They do use the word Satan, they reserve it to describe someone they politically disagree with.  (I can't figure out if this is very interesting, or very telling)

Sin - The "Christian" Left does not address sin, it's not mentioned on their official web site. However from the content of their website it's clearly obvious there are two sins they do recognize:

1. Not being a liberal
2. Not agreeing with a liberal

Prayer - The "Christian" Left is against public prayer, and their website does not address it in any other form.

Doctrine - The "Christian Left does not appear to support any doctrinal study other than those biblical quotes they have cherry picked which supports their political agenda.

Damnation - The "Christian" Left predominately believes in Annihilationism. They do not believe Christ when he spoke of the lake of fire.

Heaven - The "Christian" Left does not address heaven, it's not mentioned on their official web site

Repentance - The "Christian" Left does not address repentance, it's not mentioned on their official web site

Humility - one can plainly see from their braggadocios "look at me being better than you!" attitude toward charity and their disdain of anyone who actually is humble in their charity and worship, it's clear that the "Christian" Left does not understand humility.

Evolution - The Christian Left appears to have bought into that whole evolution theory and agrees with the Pope on many things including Evolution. They adored Pope Francis when he said that  that evolution and the Big Bang are consistent with the notion of a creator and that believers should not view God as "a magician, with a magic wand."

Rapture - the "Christian" Left doesn't believe in the Rapture. Their view of the Rapture is summed up in this post on the Huffington Post. Their unbelief stems from the theory of the pretribulational rapture, they give (mostly) reasoned opinion why they don't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture, and from that they believe that any version of the rapture is therefore false.  

...the stories and myths that had carried the larger truths about being human in an overwhelming, frightening, awe-filled universe were declared to be nonsense -- which is nonsense, and begged an equal and opposite reaction, which came in the declaration that the Bible was literally true -- every word. The idea of the Rapture, then, is Modernity's shadow, the unexpected, unscientific, and nonrational child of the rationalism that made it inevitable. Its adherents don't care that its Biblical evidence comes from pasted-together passages written by different authors at different times in history.

Notice that their unbelief stems from their own opinions and ideas, not from God's. Not a single bible reference was used to base their "understanding" of a biblical concept. If there is any disagreement within the body of Christ about the rapture, it's a debate of the timing of the rapture, not the promise. The "Christian" left actually throws the baby out with the bathwater on this. Had they actually opened up a bible they might have caught a few references such as this:

30 And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. 31 And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other. (Matthew 24:30-31)

It's also in Mark 13:26-27, all in Red letters for the weak of faith. There's plenty more references in Paul's writings but many in the "Christian" Left do not "think much of Paul". And notice in the Huffington Post article the shock displayed when the author discovered that people who believe in the rapture actually believe that the bible is (gasp!) literally true!

Abortion - the "Christian" Left believes in unfettered abortion on demand. They believe that the pro-life movement is based in segregation and "just a ploy to rally a herd mentality". They refuse to acknowledge the racist, anti-black sentiment of abortion. In NYC in 2012 42% of all abortions were black babies, which means that more black babies were murdered in the womb than were actually born. Margaret Sanger would be proud of the slaughter that the "Christian" Left supports. 

Of course, in their parlance you're not pro-life, you're "anti-choice" They consider protecting the lives of the innocent "a flimsy reason you have to cling your twisted right-wing ideology". The sanctity of human life is meaningful to them only when it fits their agenda.

Summation - The "Christian" Left is not a Christian organization, it's a left wing political organization first and foremost, a group of people who are enslaved to their political ideology. Through their words they prove that they are incapable of accepting or even considering that another persons viewpoint, and any disagreement with them is vicious political enmity. This feeling of enmity extends to biblical teaching, if it doesn't fit their agenda, then it doesn't exist, and if you don't fit their agenda, then you're the enemy. Their agenda is to drive forward their politics by using our Lord and Savior as a shield to hide behind and a club to beat their opponents over the head with. The "we're good people, therefore you are not" attitude of the "Christian" Left is what drives their agenda and causes utterly unbiblical divisiveness and disharmony.

The poor "Christian" Left is sadly deluded that they are the only ones who care, that they are the only people that truly understands what Jesus said, and that anyone who has a different opinion than theirs is an enemy who must be attacked. Their unJesus-like hate and the anger they cast toward anyone that doesn't live up to their standards denies them the title of "Christian" and makes an abject lie of their favorite quote "Love thy neighbor", ignoring Matthew 5:44

While welded to a left wing socialist ideology the "Christian" Left doesn't see the irony in their love of this quote from Pope Francis.

when a Christian becomes a disciple of the ideology, he has lost the faith: he is no longer a disciple of Jesus, he is a disciple of this attitude of thought… For this reason Jesus said to them: ‘You have taken away the key of knowledge.’ The knowledge of Jesus is transformed into an ideological and also moralistic knowledge, because these close the door with many requirements. The faith becomes ideology and ideology frightens, ideology chases away the people, distances, distances the people and distances of the Church of the people... Already the Apostle John, in his first Letter, spoke of this. Christians who lose the faith and prefer the ideologies. His attitude is: be rigid, moralistic, ethical, but without kindness. This can be the question, no? But why is it that a Christian can become like this? Just one thing: this Christian does not pray. And if there is no prayer, you always close the door.

Pray for those trapped in this political cult, pray that the Holy Spirit convicts them of their sinful sacraments and opens their eyes to the full word of God beyond their myopic selection.