Underground Exiles

“We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” - 1 John 5.19

As we look at this letter, we should be impressed by John’s realism, and the way that he doesn’t attempt to gloss over the difficulties and make light of the problems in our lives. Thank God, the Bible always faces things as they are. The Bible has a strength and power; it is concerned about courage, but courage in terms of its own truth, so it looks at this world as it is, at its worst. You may say that this is depressing; if it is depressing to you it is because you don’t accept the teaching of the Bible. To be realistic should never be depressing to people who think straightly and clearly, and this is at root a realistic book.

The other great thing that characterizes First John’s message, is the way that, having looked at the facts and having faced them honestly, it clearly applies its own glorious remedy. And in the verse we are considering, we are reminded of some of the great characteristic notes of this particular epistle. First you find that we come across these words: “We know.” Then, secondly, we find out something about ourselves - that we are of God. Thirdly, we find out that there are certain things that are always true about the world.

The first thing this is this mind-boggling certainty, “We know.” John wrote this so that they may know that they have eternal life. This is something that’s completely basic, because it meets the whole position. Christians aren’t a people that are marked by being in a state of uncertainty; the very definition of a Christian in the New Testament is of people who know where they are, what they are and what they’ve got. They aren’t men and women that are hovering around in the dark.

They days and times that we live in is a world of great uncertainty; there is uncertainty about truth, authority, and a myriad of other things. We are in a world where black isn’t always black, and white isn’t always white, and that state of things is dissonant with Scripture.

Christians are men and women who are certain, and John writes in order that these people, and we ourselves, may be absolutely sure. There were certain things that weren’t clear to them; this always seems to be the state of the Christian in this world. We start with the truth which we believe by faith. Then it is attacked, and we are shaken by various things, until, by God’s grace, we are made sure. There are certain things that you and I should know. Christians aren’t perpetual seekers and enquirers; they are men and women who have certainty.

So here’s the question which we have to ask ourselves before we can proceed:

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Now that I’ve gotten FeedDemon all setup and working properly, I’m subscribing to some of my favorite blogs by way of my aggregator, and at the top of the list is the Desiring God Blog, featuring Pastor John Piper.

Many of Dr. Pipers books sit dog-eared on my bookshelf, and have profoundly influenced me in the last 2 years. Discovering God’s Passion For His Glory was like stumbling on a cave full of treasures. While Dr. Piper freely admits he is not a primary teacher in the sense that Jonathan Edwards was, he has still been a powerful instrument of God’s grace to me, and for that I am so incredibly thankful.

While checking FeedDemon today, I found his newest blog post, Sometimes Only God Can Feel Hope, and wanted to recommend it to you all. Once again, Piper hits a home-run.

To your right is the Wittenberg Door, where Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 theses. This series of blogs is written in the same spirit, and to promote the scholarly study of the beliefs and practices of Dianetics and Scientology. The “Church” of Scientology is less than forthcoming in revealing its entire belief structure to the general public. Scientology publicly claims to be an “applied religious philosophy”, as well as being compatible with other religious belief systems. However, the private upper levels of Scientology introduce many concepts that stretch the definition of “compatible”, and L. Ron Hubbard says many uncomplimentary things about religion in general and Christianity in particular. This blog series explores the beliefs and practices of Scientology, then compares those beliefs and practices to those of Christianity.

Firstly, Scientology believes that God exists, but goes on to say “As to the form in which He exists, we do not know,”¹.

Although Scientology does not know the exact form of God (i.e., the Supreme Being), it does teach that there are “gods above other gods, and gods beyond the gods of the universes”². Scientology also states that each thetan (person) “has as far as we can see in the manufacture of energy, about the same capabilities as those which have been assigned to the Supreme being in the universe”³. All of these views should be problematic for Christians, especially when Scientology claims to be compatible with all religions. These views are certainly not compatible with Christianity.

Read more…

1. Scientology: A World Religion, p. 17: What is Scientology, p. 200 [↩]
2. Scientology 8-8008, p. 72 [↩]
3. Philadelphia Doctorate Course#9, L. Ron Hubbard [↩]

Since we’ve finished up the short series on prayer, I’ve posted one prayer request, and now I’ve got a new one for you.

The African nation of Chad his been in a downward spiral of violence that has recently calmed down, but is apparently not over. Chad has had a large spill over of refugees from the ongoing conflict in Darfur, and much of this violence has been spawned by Sudanese backed rebels.

Chad, a part of France’s African holdings until 1960, has endured three decades of civil warfare as well as invasions by Libya before a semblance of peace was finally restored in 1990. The government eventually drafted a democratic constitution and held flawed presidential elections in 1996 and 2001.

Here’s the challenge:

Spend one week praying for the nation of Chad. Here’s what you can pray about:

1. Infant mortality is high: 91.45 deaths out of 1,000 live births.
2. Many Chadian Muslims have been recruited as mercenaries to attack and kill Christians in Nigeria.
3. The country is almost equally divided between Muslim northerners, who are politically more powerful, and increasingly more marginalized Christian/ethnic religion southerners. Pray for continued peace and freedom in all ethnic and religious communities.
4. There are more unreached peoples in Chad than anywhere else in Africa. Pray for ongoing support and protection for missionaries already working here. Pray also that God would call many to dedicate years to learning the languages and building the Kingdom in Chad.

During the early 1970s the IRS “proved that Hubbard was skimming millions of dollars from the church, laundering the money through dummy corporations in Panama and stashing it in Swiss bank accounts. Moreover, church members stole IRS documents, filed false tax returns and harassed the agency’s employees.”¹

A US federal court in 1971 ruled that Hubbard’s medical claims were bogus and that E-meter auditing could not be called a scientific treatment. The Church of Scientology responded by “going fully religious, seeking First Amendment protection…counselors started sporting clerical collars. Chapels were built, “franchises” became “missions”, fees became “fixed donations”, and Hubbard’s comic-book cosmology became “sacred scriptures.” ²

After years of running the Scientology organization from aboard his flagship, the Apollo, in 1975 Hubbard bought the Fort Harrison Hotel and a former bank building in downtown Clearwater, Florida under the name United Churches of Florida, to hide Scientologys connection. He moved his crew to Clearwater, establishing the Flagship Land Base, a.k.a. “Flag.”

While the Church of Scientology continued to expand, its private intelligence agency known as the Guardian’s Office (GO) ran cloak-and-dagger operations against the mayor of Clearwater, various governmental agencies and anyone else perceived as in their way.

Read more…

1. Richard Behar. “Scientology: The Thriving Cult of Greed and Power,” TIME MAGAZINE, May 6, 1991. http://tinyurl.com/28nox [↩]
2. ((Ibid. [↩]