Through the Wounds -- Ep. 1:"Jesus and the Back-Door Paganism of Cultural Fundamentalism" (Part 1)

Описание: “Jesus and the Back-Door Paganism of Cultural Fundamentalism, Part 1:”

That might sound like a provocative title for a video about confession, forgiveness, and sanctification. But it deliberately underlines a key concept which I think is critical to understanding the mess of the modern religious and political world:

We all carry “baggage,” from our cultures, families, or personal lives, into the Church. Many times, we are told, out of fear, to hide that mess of ancient and Pre-Christian cultural beliefs, for fear of exposure and invalidation. I will give more concrete examples and specific documentation in the next part of this series; but for now, a basic introduction to the radical liberty of Confession and Sanctification will set the groundwork, and hopefully provide a resource for practical obedience and transformation now, before any further explanation of what is actually at stake here.

If we do not actively, consciously invite the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into the hidden doors in our hearts, where we were told to stuff everything that we, our cultures, or even our religions are too afraid to bring out into the light – then we might actually be worshipping old gods and old idols while claiming to serve Christ.

For the Christian, we have the freedom to escape from that darkness through confession, exposure to the light, repentance, and sanctification, and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

That’s the whole point of this video essay – that fear, outrage, hatred, and every manifestation of coercion, cover-up, and control within the Church, is actually evidence of a secret indulgence and heretical worship of cultural idols behind closed doors, while claiming, outwardly, to represent Christ; but it means we so often fall into the same traps and lies that Jesus came to free the human race from. And each cultural background has its own, unique baggage and unconfessed beliefs, that we all have to walk through and unpack before the Cross.

But the New Testament claims that Jesus gives us a way out of the “contracts” our cultures have made with dark forces. And, as Believers, we have the right and freedom to bring those things out into the open so they may begin to be healed, and we may be freed, from the idols of our ancestors and the gods of our cultures – from precisely the doctrines and concepts, in fact, that cause so much of the pain we see in the world today.

Inviting Jesus in to the locked doors of our hearts, to redeem our cultures, is how we meet hatred with Love, falsehood with Truth, and fear with Confession.





(This is the first episode in a new experimental series of video essays I’m titling, “Through The Wounds: A New Way To See.” Every episode will be put in a playlist of the same name to separate them from my music and keep everything organized. The basic idea of “Through The Wounds” is that, no matter how painful, bleak, or barren the circumstances of the current world around you, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ opens a doorway to a new way of seeing, and a new way of being Human that might not line up with the “old ways” that we are so often taught is “objective” or “true.” Yet, if Jesus is who He says He is, then it flips that whole system on its head, and renews a bleak and dreary world with a vibrancy and color and vitality that we can only see through His wounds.)