Tag: Radical

Radical Liberalism

Liberalism taken to an extreme becomes pure emotionalism.

“In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”

Matthew 15:9

“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 4:24

“And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”

Exodus 32:4-6

Liberalism pushes for progression in worship. They want more welcoming Churches and more “enjoyable” worship services. They tend to place the focus of worship on emotion, how they personally feel or the spiritual high they get while “worshiping”. This becomes a problem because it makes the individual the primary object of the worship service instead of God. 

You are no longer worshiping God, but are merely using the worship as a tool to feel good about yourself. 

Liberals enjoy anything that promotes emotion and that rejects negativity or feeling bad. They use negative emotion only as a tool to promote guilt. Because guilt is obviously a highlight of a good Christian. 

Liberals love to feel guilty and “broken” and in need of a savior. The problem arises when liberals begin to wallow in their brokenness yet do nothing to fix the problem. God demands improvement and progression of faith. This,“I’m so bad, I need Jesus so much. I need grace so much” mentality is emotionalistic nonsense. It promotes no growth, and it generates nothing positive.

Liberalism is fundamentally effeminate.

Liberalism is feminized religion.

Weak, emotional men tend to gravitate towards this because it makes them think all their emotions are okay and should even be applauded. 

It is okay for these men to cry and break down because they have bought into the feminist lie that a “vulnerable man is an attractive man”. (A Strong, masculine man is an attractive man). 

It is okay for them to express emotion like a child. They think it is okay for them to get all emotional and touchy-feely about worship. They think it is fine to have no mastery over emotion and to just let it all out when anyone so much as mentions the name of Jesus. This is all nonsense. 

This is not spirituality, it is emotionalism masquerading as spirituality. 

Forms of liberalism are also beneficial. Without some element or progressiveness, nothing would ever change. Radical conservatives would have been unwilling to adapt to the modern times of technology and the Church would be stuck in the bronze age. Progressiveness is the reason we can accept PowerPoint and microphones in worship. The push for new things can bring about many benefits. But we should never try to make progress purely for the sake of making progress, which is the mission of the progressive. Progress should be made when newness is truly needed.

Radical liberalism has just as many problems and pitfalls as radical conservatism. Both should be avoided at all costs. We are called to be Christians, and such we should be. Reject these labels of extreme Christian genres.

Mantra

To embrace a label is to kiss death.

Liberalism

Application

Again, all labels must be rejected. After this, emotions must be controlled at all cost. Emotion may be fun and enjoyable, but it is neither productive nor rational, and is the birthplace of all kinds of problems. 

You have heard about crimes of passion: emotion pushes individuals to kill. 

Emotion pushes Kids to have sex before they are married because they think they are “in love”. 

Extreme, unbridled emotion is a root of all kinds of evil and there is no need to bring it in the worship assembly. 

To reject emotionalistic worship is to reject selfishness, because one who focuses on emotion in worship cannot also be focused on God. Emotions are not to be applauded, they are to be warned against. 

Be willing to recognize overly emotional traits within yourself and start working to reject them. If you are an “emotional man” acknowledge that this is a weakness. Other men will exploit this trait if they ever discover you have it. And when it comes to something as apparent as emotions, they will certainly discover it. 

You have to ask yourself difficult questions:

Am I concerned with worshipping God or merely with feeling good?

Do I make decisions based on logic and the Bible or based on emotions?

Do I tend to try extra hard to justify ideas or actions that I cannot support with reason or Scripture?

Be a man. Control your emotions. Be Serious with your faith.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Radical Conservatism

Conservatism is valuable until it radicalizes. At that point it becomes tradition focused.

“So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”

2 Thessalonians 2:15

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

Colossians 2:8

The problem with any ‘genre’ of Christians, (liberal, conservative, Anti or what have you) is the fact that at some point the label will supersede God. Meaning: Conservatives will put defining conservative characteristics above God in importance. Liberals do the same. And this is what we mean by becoming radical. 

A Radical individual places what he believes above God in importance.

Conservatives will place tradition and liturgy above God, forgetting that God is the very Being we are worshiping, not tradition. Liberals will place emotions above God, using worship service as a chance to get a “spiritual high” from a theatrical performance based “service”. Obviously God should be placed above everything: tradition, emotion, liturgy, performance and especially SELF. 

The subsequent problem with all genres of Christians is the fact that they are viewing their ideas as the most important items, rather than God. Preserving and protecting the labels becomes the goal for these individuals. People strive to preserve their conservatism and neglect truth as a result. . 

The defining traits of a radical conservative are highly apparent and include the following: 

  • Resistant to progression or change of any kind. 
  • Resistant to positive or happy emotions, choosing rather to focus on negative emotions such as death and the thought of eternal destruction. 
  • Blatant Self-Righteousness. 

Conservatives believe that positive emotions will cloud the judgement of man and cause him to make poor decisions. Emotions will lead us to think that the status quo is just fine, when God clearly commands us to improve over time (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 4:22-24). 

Conservatives tend to acquire an inflated sense of self-worth and as a result become self-righteous unless they are extremely careful in guarding themselves against it. They tend to minimize topics such as grace, because the liberals twisted the grace of God to the point where they no longer think they need to take action. Conservatives want to avoid that at all costs, knowing that a faith without works is dead (James 2:20). 

Conservatives tend to focus on doom and destruction.

The inevitable death and punishment of man approaches and is constantly on their minds. Continual focus on negativity is unwise and breaks down the mind. It is unwise to constantly have negative thoughts festering in your mind without a productive use for them. 

One problem that results from a conservative’s hyper-focus on works and a minimization of grace is the false idea that they have somehow “made themselves right with God”. There is absolutely something to be said for man’s role in his own salvation (Phil 2:12), but we also cannot minimize the importance of grace and the fact that we are lost without it. 

This was not an exhaustive list of the conservative traits, but it gives the most common traits that you will see. Looking above at these traits from a detached, objective perspective, you can see that they can become problematic if left unchecked. Each of these characteristics can grow out of control. These ideas also become problems when they depart from the actual Word of God. Minimization of grace is a departure from scripture. Fixation on death and destruction is a poor evangelism technique. 

Do not Place anything above God. You are a Christian before you are a conservative. Force your ego into submission. Be a Man.

Mantra

To be labeled is to allow the mind to die.

Conservatism. Church

Application

First, be sure to understand that we are avoiding RADICAL conservatism, not conservatism itself. Remember from earlier that an individual is radical if he puts his personal beliefs above God in importance. So in this section, we are avoiding the tendency to put the traditions of man above God in importance.

Again, the foundation for defeating radical conservatism is awareness. Whether you are liberal or conservative, you MUST be aware of the downfalls of your “genre” of Christianity. Do not place the characteristics of your personal religious leaning anywhere above God in importance. Avoid attempts to preserve tradition at the expense of God. Do not focus on hell at the expense of the souls of others. 

If you ever place anything above God in importance, you have just radicalized. 

Your masculinity is diminished by radicalization, so this must be avoided at all cost. A radical man refuses to think for himself and blindly holds onto his current beliefs. You need to develop the mental wherewithal and humility and recognize your personal biases and then manage them properly.

Reject radical conservatism immediately, it is a problem. It promotes isolation and mechanical, superficial worship and interactions. It can cause individuals to develop cult-like behavior. The Church already has the reputation for being cult-like, make sure you are not contributing to that unsavory public image. 

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.