faith Archives - Spartan Christianity

Israel is Separated from Other Nations

One of the greatest examples of seeing God’s intention to separate His people from the rest of the world is found in His commands to Israel. They were to be separate from all the other nations. There could be no intermarrying or relationships.

This is because the incredibly negative influence of the other nations would be so powerful that it might sway Israel towards evil. And in fact, it did sway them time and time again. We read in the book of Judges how over and over again the people of Israel disobey God, worship idols, intermarry with the locals, and behave poorly.

“You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly.”
Deuteronomy 7:3-4

It is easy to understand why they did this. It was because of the sexual activity involved in the various worship services of the foreign gods.

But some in the modern world might wonder why God did not allow them to intermarry so they could be a “good influence” on the people of Canaan. We are too simplistic in our thinking if we are contemplating this. We should know that the pull of a negative influence is far more powerful than the pull of a positive one. And we will always be more drawn towards evil than towards good. This is simply a part of the human condition, something we must think about as we do war with the flesh.

“For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”
Galations 5:17

Israel could never be a good enough influence to change the people of the world

Sure, there were probably a few people here and there who wanted to join Israel and changed their beliefs. But these were the minority. Most people never change the way they are. And this is why God’s command was to totally annihilate these people from the face of the earth. None of them could be left alive.

“Completely destroy them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you.”
Deuteronomy 20:17

If you are removing cancer from the human body, you obviously want to remove the whole thing. If you leave even a small portion of the cancerous tumor in the body, it will simply grow back to full strength.

This is why Israel was required to completely remove the cancer that was the pagan nations in Canaan. There could be no place for people who engaged in homosexuality and offered their children as burnt offerings to their gods. Imagine sacrificing your kids by burning them alive just so you could have a better life or a better harvest the next year. It is absolutely despicable behavior. And it was precisely this behavior that required those people to be utterly destroyed.

We live a similar life today.

The modern church overemphasized the idea of being a “good influence“. They do this in the same way that they place too much focus on accountability. These are good tools, but they should not make up the bulk of our practice. We are never going to be able to exert as much positive influence as the world will be able to exert a negative influence. The negative is always more powerful in a face-to-face assault. This is why we must be more strategic in our approach.

We have to control our environment. The best way to avoid negative behaviors is to make sure we do not have the opportunity to engage in them.

You cannot eat junk food if it is not in the house. You cannot be pulled into worldliness if you are not surrounded by people of the world. People who would be forcing their extremely powerful influence on you.

Influence always comes from a position of strength, you cannot influence someone unless you have some power or unless they look up to you in some way. There is no way around this. Influence, as well as help, always comes from a position of strength. This is a fact of life.

We have to arm ourselves and separate ourselves from the negative influence of the world. We have to split from the pack if we ever intend to become strong.

Israel failed time and time again because of negative influences.

We cannot allow our lives to be lived in the same way. Separate yourself from false ideologies and evil behavior just like you would remove yourself from a leper colony. Treat evil like a plague and hide from it. We rarely have the strength to engage it in full frontal warfare, we need to be strategic and maneuver around. Work the enemy’s strengths into weaknesses. Do not allow them to touch you. Act too quickly for them to realize what you are doing. Be fast, bold, and courageous, and do not engage with the world more than necessary.

Do not ever overestimate the strength of a positive influence. The positive influence is almost always weaker than the negative one. Do not count on your own strength of will to allow you to resist temptation or influence others. Be realistic about your own strength and only engage in skirmishes you know you can win.

Avoid evil and act like men.

Dogma – The Root Of Blind Faith

Dogma is the result of the inability to think rationally.

“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world”.
1 John 4:1

The need to think has long been done away with, especially in religion. While liberalism lives through emotionalism, conservatism thrives on dogma. Blind acceptance of tradition and the rejection of all progressivism is the hallmark of radical conservatives. That is a weak mindset to have.

The weakness comes from the fact that these individuals are so set in their ways of tradition that they do not want to go through the mental labor of thinking and evaluating what they believe.

Do I believe in holding to and preserving what the Bible says? Yes.

Do I believe in glorifying the traditions of man to the point where they are deified? No I do not. That would be just as illogical as liberalism.

Traditional dogma is when conservatives force an overload of rules on you, demanding that they must be followed without question, and threatening punishment if they are not.

The problem is that most people in the Church have no idea what they are talking about, and you can prove this by asking the most simple question in the world: Why?

They say, “Don’t use drugs”. Why not? “Drugs” is too vague of a word? What exactly do you think that is in your coffee pot? Have you tried any to know why they are bad other than the fact that your parents told you they are bad? (I’m not advocating drugs here, I’m opposing dogmatic mindsets and blind faith).

“Save yourself for marriage”, they say. They really should be more specific, because without specific, clearly defined boundaries, kids will push the envelope. Is oral sex before marriage okay? Depends on if you ask a Church elder or Bill Clinton doesn’t it?

Why should we save ourselves for marriage anyways? It doesn’t look like it did your marriage much good. You look just as unhappy and unfulfilled as any worldly marriage. An extremely important question with regards to this is: “If you saved yourself for marriage, how exactly do you know it is more fulfilling than if you hadn’t saved yourself for marriage?” You have nothing to compare it to. So what most people will do here is pull out the few cases of people who have regrets later about not waiting for marriage to have sex.

An important thing to note is that these individuals with regret are only found in the Church.

Less than 1% of all American save themselves for marriage. Therefore, shouldn’t we see a corresponding 99% regret rate? We don’t. Because people are not regretting sex in the same way as the Church preaches. The majority of people who regret having sex outside of marriage are people whom the Church has instilled a perverted manner of guilt into though dogma. They regret having sex because they were told they would regret having sex. It is a “no-cebo” effect.

Dogma is to be utterly avoided, both in learning from others and in teaching others. It should be attacked every moment it presents itself in the Church. Teach and learn through rationality, because your faith is rational.

Mantra

All dogma is for the weak.

Application

Don’t accept what is told to you just because people in the Church say it’s right. You have to “test every spirit” (1 John 4:1). You have to think with your rational mind. Do not preach dogma, do not accept dogma. The Biblical faith is rational and has no need for man made dogmatic, perverted blithering and prevaricating. Be rational. Be a Man.

Write down everything you believe. Start with just one teaching you have heard in the Church, take drinking or premarital sex for starters. You must now “test the spirit” of what you have been taught by comparing it to the Bible.

Ask yourself the following questions about the teaching to weed out dogma in your mind.

Is the teaching I heard in the Church actually found in the Bible (you would be shocked at how much dogma fails this simple test).
If the teaching is in the Bible, is the teaching being used rationally? (Some traditions people in the Church try to force on you based on the Bible simply do not make any sense logically. You believe in an intelligent God who makes intelligent rules. Therefore, there should be logic behind every commandment).
Is this teaching biased? (Could be due to the teachers personal upbringing, opinion or agenda).
What is the teacher trying to get me to do? (Obey God or obey his traditionalist teaching?)
What are the biases of the teacher (Could be political or racial if the teacher is vile enough to pollute the Word of God with them. It could be a personal bias)

You can ask yourself more questions, but this should be enough to clear out most dogma from your mind. Never accept something as true just because someone in the Church said so. Always check them and cross reference what they say. Find out if they are being truthful or if they have an agenda. Then remove as much blind dogma from yourself as you can. You will be a better man as a result of being a rational man.

Conduct Yourselves like men.

Obedience

“Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.”
Romans 1:5

“If you love me, keep my commands.”
John 14:15

How you emotionally feel about any of the commands of God is irrelevant. You may not agree with them. You may not want to do them, or you may even hate them at times. However, none of your thoughts matter. The only thing that matters is whether or not you obey through action. All that matters is whether or not you do what you know you must do.

The discipline to follow through with the commands of God is key. The ability to do what God says when we do not want to is a fundamental principle of Spartan Christianity.

Saving yourself for marriage is not fun.

No one who has undertaken that goal has enjoyed it. It is not meant to be enjoyed, that command exists for a purpose. Avoiding drugs and alcohol is not fun. These mind altering chemicals seem like they would be medicine to treat the misery of life. Alcohol could take you away from the pain, drugs could give you the best high of your life, but we cannot use them because we would be unable to be vigilant of the enemy. The command of sobriety is difficult. Few who keep that command enjoy it.

Obedience is a verb.

No one cares how you feel about it. As a man, you aren’t called to feel anything, you are only expected to act. You are only required to take action. You are not required to feel happy about it. Many of the commands are heavy and difficult, and feeling happy about them is something that will never happen. What you can guarantee is that day after day after day you will be grinding away at the discipline of obedience through action.

Mantra

Feeling is irrelevant, only obedience matters.

Application

Simple, do what God commands without getting caught up in how you feel about it. Sideline those emotions. Shut down those thoughts. Put ‘feelings’ in the trash can and focus solely on the action of obedience. You can feel any way you want, what matters is your obedience.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.

Temptation

He who is not tempted is of no value to the devil.

This is what I think about when people brag that temptation is seemingly non-existent in their lives. In the first place, the type of person who talks about their lack of temptation is obviously not intelligent enough to be of much use to the enemy. Not being tempted is nothing to brag about. Men think they are showcasing their “natural goodness” by way of not being tempted, but the opposite is true. The devil has no need of such weak, egotistical individuals. He already owns them.

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various temptations knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience”.
James 1:2-3

Hypothetically, Satan has a hit-list, a hierarchy of importance on which he ranks the most valuable players in the Church and plots to destroy them. If you aren’t tempted, you aren’t on the list, if you aren’t tempted, you should be worried.

If you are tempted, it is your job to destroy that temptation.

You can redirect the temptational energy, fight the temptation with willpower, or run from the temptation. Jesus was strong enough to crush temptation face to face using scripture. Are you strong enough to do that?

If you are weaker, or are worn down from temptations already, you will need to use the escape method to remove yourself from the presence of the temptations. Use the redirect method when the temptation is so strong that it causes huge surges of energy in your system. Take that energy and turn your focus onto something productive. Build. Create. Work.

Be aware of your weaknesses. The devil and his demons are cowardly, they will never hit you where you are strongest – they will always look for the chink in the armor. Any little crevice they can worm their way into in order to destroy you. Be aware of your weaknesses, and what sins you are inclined to commit based on your personality. Awareness is key in all aspects of dealing with temptation. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of the enemy, and use temptation to strengthen yourself for the future.

Temptation is the stress that produces growth of the mind, if you allow yourself to be trained by it. The willpower muscle must be used in order for it to grow. Temptation will either crush a man or make him more powerful, and you have to decide today which one it is going to be.

Mantra

I crush the temptation before me at all times.

Application

Awareness is always the first step in solving any problem. Becoming aware of the temptation is key, then you can analyze how the temptation is attacking you and how you can most easily destroy it. Or you can decide that it is too powerful for you and you can run away.

Make no mistake, the way of escape is a useful tool, but it requires you to have humility and accept that you are not strong enough to overcome temptation and must therefore flee from it. So when you are tempted, look in the immediate environment, there is a way of escape there somewhere.

Stockpile the mind with scripture. The Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit, making it both useful for defensive measures and offensive maneuvers. This was the tactic used by Christ when He was tempted in the wilderness, and undoubtedly the tactic He used all the other times He was tempted which are not recorded.

Use temptation for growth.

Every time you resist temptations, you increase your experience in dealing with temptation, making it more likely that you will be able to resist temptation in the future as long as you don’t get comfortable and lazy.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Blind Faith

Man will question what he believes; to deny this is to deny human nature. Man needs substance: to see, feel, hear, and experience. Faith provides none of these, which is why it is called “faith” and not “knowledge”.

Blind faith is popular in the beta church. It requires no work and no thought. It is in the same category as people who focus far too much on grace, minimizing their own mandatory responsibility to do good works. To question the blind faith is “heresy”. To doubt the traditions of men is “apostasy”. This is what the beta male teaches his sons and followers.

“The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”
Proverbs 14:15

Tradition must be doubted because it is exactly that: mere tradition and not Biblical law.

The radical conservatives have deified tradition and liturgy and set themselves in opposition to progress and growth. “The old ways are better”. Changing one’s mind and opinion is too laborious for these lazy thinkers. Changing the mind without polluting it with pusillanimous emotions is even more difficult. For this reason the beta males have become complacent and set in their ways, never questioning what it is they believe, and claiming that those who do question the faith are blasphemous.

This is blind faith, it is a hallmark of the weak, pathetic shell of what once was masculinity, and it must be burned down. Man will question what he believes; to deny this is to deny human nature. Man needs substance: to see, feel, hear, and experience. Faith provides none of these, which is why it is called “faith” and not “knowledge”. There are people in the Church who are uncomfortable with this and would assure you that they “know” what it is they believe. The truth is that if we could know with absolute certainty what was coming after this life, there would be no need for faith. Therefore, the Creator has seen fit to test humanity by giving them just the information they need and no more. Man is free to learn what he can about the world through science in order to improve his faith, but he is still required to have some form of faith because he will forever lack 100% of the knowledge of his existence.

What men must fight against is not faith, rather having blind faith. Men must realize they are free to question what they believe, and that they should question their faith. Questioning the faith is key for growth.

If you reject blind faith, you put yourself in the 99th percentile of Christian people.

You put yourself in a different position than other betas. Now you are no longer the stereotypical, stupid Christian. You think differently, and walk and act differently as a result. Think Rationally about your faith, and that will be enough to put you far beyond the level of most beta Christians.

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, He must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear” – Thomas Jefferson

Mantra

I think freely, and believe that which is true.

Application

Take time to think about your faith. Not the light, easy thoughts that everyone thinks about (such as grace, hope and love), but the difficult thoughts. Why did God create man knowing ahead of time that most men would go to hell? If you cannot answer this question in your own mind, how then will you be able to answer it when others ask you? Think about the questions that make you the most uncomfortable. That discomfort is growth of the mind, and consequently, of the faith.

What most people do not realize is that the more you question your faith, the more you will be able to answer about your faith. If you ask a question about the faith and can provide yourself with a rational answer, it is no longer a question. In this way you can reduce your doubts, but you must be willing to go through the discomfort and fiercely examine your faith regularly before you can expect to acquire any of those insights.

Be very aware that most of the people in your Church have blind faith.

The only reason they still attend worship is because they are in the habit of doing so. It would only take one small plague or catastrophe to send most of them scurrying like rats back into the darkness where they already secretly live. You need to call attention to this whenever you can. Address blind faith in the comments you make. Defend the necessity of scientific thinking. Science and religion are friends.

Question with ferocity those who claim to know things for certain. The only people arrogant enough to think they have existence figured out are atheists, and they have the blindest faith of them all.

Understand that some people in the Church are going to say that you are a “bad Christian” because you are questioning your faith. Realize that those who refuse to do the labor of thinking are lazy Christians. Be willing to show these individuals the problems with their thinking. Many Christians (like most people of the world) lack even a fundamental level of self-awareness. They do not realize how inconsistent their own thinking is, and you must draw attention to those inconsistencies.

KEY: If what you believe is the truth, then you can question it as many times as you please and it will still stand strong as a rocky cliff is unmoved as it is pounded by ocean waves.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Continue Reading: Demagogue

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