The Rugged Individualistic American Way

As Christians, we must not think that the Old Testament narratives are irrelevant past history and simply interesting stories for us to read. These events in Jewish history serve as warnings to us not to disobey God (1 Corinthians 10:1–13) as well as encouragements to build our faith (Hebrews 11) and hope (Romans 15:4). The story of Balaam is mentioned by three different New Testament writers: Peter (2 Peter 2:15–16, Jude 11 and John in Revelation 2:14. As a short note, Balaam was a magician, sage and prophet for hire. He was in it for the money. Balaam may have received his name later in life when his powers with the spirit world became known.

Balaam's name came from a Hebrew root meaning "destroyer" or "devourer." It is unlikely his parents named him destroyer intentionally. In either case Balaam's name suggests that he was a veteran conjurer of curses. He is brought into the bible narrative when he is solicited by Barak, king of Moab to curse the future of Israel. This of course ended poorly for Moab because Balaam actually blesses Israel instead.

There is a lesson to be learned in this narrative and it centers on ‘the Way of Balaam’ or the mindset that made Balaam be and do as he did. The arguments of whether or not he was a believer of Yahweh are a moot and distracting point. One needs to focus on the latent narrative in Numbers of Balaam’s mindset and thinking that put him where he was in the Bible narrative. A mindset that has actually become identical to the American Way. The American way refers to a nationalist ethos that adheres to the principle of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and brags of American exceptionalism. If we are honest we would admit this isn’t very Biblical. In William Herberg’s writing...Protestant, Catholic, Jew: An Essay in American Religious Sociology (1955), he makes a striking statement that could easily describe Balaam and modern Christians like Balaam:

The American Way of life is individualistic, dynamic, and pragmatic. It affirms the supreme value and dignity of the individual; it stresses incessant activity on his part, for he is never to rest but is always to be striving to "get ahead"; it defines an ethic of self-reliance, merit, and character, and judges by achievement: "deeds, not creeds" are what count.

The Bible does not stress individuality. The supreme value is not in the individual but in Christ and His true Church. Supreme value is communal. Action for action’s sake is just pointless movement. God told us to teach others everything He taught us (Matthew 28:19-20). It wasn’t focused on self it is focused on others. Not resting so one can get themselves ahead isn’t the primary focus, it is to push the Kingdom of God forward. Our modus operandi as Christians is not self-reliance but rather reliance on God. Worst of all the Christian is to focus on ‘creeds’ or truths and teaching that helps them maintain a biblical and moral ethical standard. The Way of Balaam and the American Way teach a cult of works. 

This in turn has produced an Americanized religious cult of works. This unbiblical Way of Balaam/American Way has been exacerbated by the rank immorality, greed and sin of unbridled capitalism. Is capitalism inherently bad? No. But…anything not walled in and controlled turns into a demonic free-for-all (Proverbs 5:15-23). Just so we’re clear, socialism is even worse because it places absolute power in fewer hands. The American Democracy is optimal in  fallen world but the idea of the Way of Balaam/American Way is demonic. One cannot get where they need to go running out the back of a train going in the other direction. At some point you run out of cars and end up sitting on the tracks.

If we jump to the New Testament in 2 Peter 2 we will see that Peter focuses on the danger of false teachers secretly entering the church and leading people astray. Peter promises that God will judge the deceivers doing this (v. 3). He warns believers to exercise spiritual discernment or they’ll be taken captive by false doctrine. The false teachers in Peter’s time are like Balaam in that they knew the right way but turned from it. Like Balaam they were covetous, and they led people into immorality due to their greed and sin (v.14). This Way of Balaam has entered the church today. Instead of sound doctrine to drive it right back out the front door, it has been embraced.

Things like the Social Gospel were on clear display even in the Southern Baptist Convention and otherwise sound Biblical teachers. The impetus was the 2020 COVID lockdown and the arguments of whether the church should gather or if it was a risk to believers. It divided the churches almost directly down the middle. At least it exposed the Way of Balaam that had infiltrated the church. This embracing of Balaam-esque theology has brought low the effectual message of the Gospel by making the church the culture. This in turn has further degraded the moral/ethical condition of an American society already in steep decline (even by secular standards). Sadly, no one recognizes that this is the root cause. In the end it was about money. One needs to realize faith had nothing to do with these derailments.

The Way of Balaam is motivated to make money and use opportunities ethically or unethically, not to serve God and His people, but to satisfy craving for wealth. In other words, Balaam was a hireling who sold himself to the highest bidder. Many religious leaders do this also by whoring themselves to the culture to be ‘popular’, teaching sermons that ‘tickle’ people’s ears. In some cases preaching and teaching the things the highest tithers want to hear in ‘their’ church. Balaam and these modern day equivalents use “religion” only to make money and to cover up sinful cravings of prestige and wealth. Balaam and modern day ‘prophets’ use “religion” to entice people to sin.

The Way of Balaam encourages leaders to go to God to get their duty altered, not to learn what God’s duty is for them. Balaam and false teachers always have a hidden agenda that isn’t hidden from God at all. Thankfully, if God isn’t allowed to rule in a person’s life, He overrules and accomplishes His purposes just the same. In truth regular Christians do this when the deliberately or unwittingly use Scripture or the Pentecostal, “God said to me…so you should listen to me” to manipulate people into believing their motives are strictly Godly or benign. When we walk in the way of Balaam we deliberately rebel against the will of God and try to change it to suit our own needs. How often have we see people twist Scripture to justify their sinful behavior? They use God to profit themselves, not Him. Let’s face it “Religion” is big business today and it’s easy for preachers, musicians, executives, writers, and others in Christian service to get Christianity to service them. They use precepts and ideas for money, reputation and popularity instead of perpetuating the kingdom and spiritual character, thereby defaming the entirety of Christianity in the process.

It is a sad reality that some believers care little about Bible doctrine and theology and easily fall prey to heretical influences for lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Once captured by false teaching and doctrines the new converts of these cults bring them into spiritual bondage. The false teachers and teaching of Balaam’s, Peter’s and our day prey upon ignorance of Scripture and this is the point of attack that the Christian needs to engage the enemies. Sound teaching prevents theological detours into error. The greatest evil is corruption of the highest good: Scripture. False teachers use the cloak of Scripture to cover their purposeful misinterpretation of it. Some even do so unwittingly because even they are ignorant of their own ignorance. That type of ignorance comes from arrogance. The very thing that brought down the devil (Ezekiel 28).

The ‘Doctrine of Balaam’ that creates the ‘Way of Balaam’ is actually easier to state. When in Midian do as the Midianites do. A more familiar phrase would be, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” Today I believe it is stated, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” or “While in American do as the Americans do”. Nowhere in any of these statements is the mention of God. The lie embedded in the Doctrine of Balaam is the lie that it’s permissible for saved people to live like unsaved people, that God’s grace gives us the right to disobey God’s law. That is an abuse of grace. We cannot do this. Any teaching that makes it easier to sin is false. Christians need to be wary of anyone teaching this. Any Christian that encourages sinful behaviors of the culture is a Christian in error. They are a cancer and need to be excised. Israel inevitably killed Balaam but the false doctrine or the Way of Balaam he supplied outlived him. The liar can be destroyed but the lie is not so vulnerable. That is why the Christian needs to guard so vigilantly against it. It is a metastasizing cancer of the mind. We are told in 2 Corinthians 10 how to deal with this outright. We are to destroy the idea taking it captive and punishing the person or entity providing it…even if it is us. If we don’t, God can and will.

2 Corinthians 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Solomon also issued a warning.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

If we don’t stay vigilant, life will no longer spring from the heart...death will.

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

Psalm 137:1-9 By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. Remember, LORD, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

Memory is mentioned five times in these nine verses of Psalm 137. The words remember and forget both allude to memories either being kept or trying to get rid of them. Memory can open old wounds making them feel new again. The pain resurfaces (v. 1–4) in the recollection in the Jewish exile. Sitting was the official position for mourning, and the Jewish exiles felt and acted like mourners at a funeral. This is mentioned early in the passage. Jews in exile in Babylon often gather along the rivers Tigris and the Euphrates. The Jews gathered by them because they needed water for their religious rituals (Acts 16:13). They refused to play their songs for the pagan Babylonians as they were sacred to the Jews. Similarly today, the irony of gospel choirs singing Amazing Grace for pagan masses that neither know or worship God nor the importance of the words of that song is not lost on me. Regardless, the exiled Jews had lost everything but God and their lives, and being normal people, they were deeply pained in their hearts. The lament of love lost. To lose something so costly that it feels as if it wounded you. It in fact did if you feel it that deeply.

Memories can bring pain, real physical pain and the pain does not go away when we try to bury them. This type of denial usually makes things worse. The fact that the exiles could talk about those painful memories in this episodic psalm indicates that they were facing them honestly and learning how to process the pain in a mature way. It takes time for broken hearts to heal. The healing that processing painful memories creates leads to the formation of character. Sometimes we have to lose things to really appreciate them. In this stalwart formation of character we see a fertile ground for a person or people’s faith to be cultivated.

The Jews had lost privileges of being citizens of Jerusalem, God’s holy city. They had lost the splendor of Solomon’s Temple. How often have we lost in similar manner? We lost things like our marriages, our homes, a loved one, a prized possession, our faith and even our dignity. We lost just like the Jews being patronized by the Babylonians to play their, “Songs of Zion.” Yet as we know, the Jews would and will be restored. They did not lose their God, he was and is always there/here. They wept at the recollection of privileges which they had lost by reason of their non-appreciation of them. They were removed from their country and their home because of their sins. Do we think we are any better than the exiled Jews? Think again. The Jews certainly were thinking about it…remembering their loss even in the midst of their pain. Yet, this did not stay their permanent condition. They healed and they recovered. They moved on and again thrived. We need to learn from that. We need to also realize that behind this it is God restoring them. Because the Jews did not appreciate what they had and because they didn’t appreciate God Himself, He sent them away. Do we have exiles like this in our lives too due to disobedience?

It is also interesting to note that the Babylonian lands were strange to the Jews who had been exiled there. This is similar to the Christian who isn’t really at home in the world either (Philippians 3:20). Similarly, God will often have us well outside our comfort zones. We are strangers in strange lands in strange situations doing things unfamiliar to us. I suggest this is to keep us sharp and dependant on him for spiritual sustenance, learning and faith.  On earth the Christian feels himself to be an exile—distant from his Father’s home—distant from near and beloved connections and friends who have made it home before him. True, he has many comforts but still this is not his rest; not his true spiritual birthplace; not the true condition for which his faculties and affections were originally designed. No, they were made for something much more lofty and holy. There are times in which his hope is full of immortality, and he has bright glimpses of the better place in his hours of faith and devotion. Then his faith wavers and he feels he is a stranger and a pilgrim adrift far from home without a friend in the world. He spurns his worldly yoke and kicks against the chain that holds him down.

Since coming into the faith I have changed jobs twelve times. Before that I had only had three jobs in 20 years. Do the math, in 15 years I have changed jobs 12 times. I believe this was intentional exile from employers for the glory of God. I adapted well and quickly. With each job change I have adapted faster. Dare I say I think I’m getting used to it... the chaos. Do I believe I deserved this much shuffling in my life? Does it matter if I did? What God wills, God wills. I obey. I’m sure much of it is probably exile for sin, yes. How much, who cares? The truth is, any sin is too much. I do what I can but I know God did it all anyway. I need only accept that, obey and perform the tasks set before me until I am called home like my predecessors.

In the end, God doesn’t accidently punish people or send trials their way for a laugh. They serve deliberate purposes as lessons, punishment or warnings. The designs of God are sometimes worked through wicked men as in the case of the Babylonians and Jews. Bad situations do not justify sinning more or offer excuse to such men to continue in their errant behaviors down their errant paths. You will be forgiven your sins if you repent but sin still has consequences. Forgiveness from God does not exempt you from the consequences of your deeds. The Babylonian captivity exemplified this with clarity to the Jews in Psalm 137 and should do so for us vicariously. The Jews were not carried into Babylon without God’s permission. God knew and allowed it.

In truth the pain in suffering and exile accomplishes its intended goals for the Jews and us today. It makes us focus on what matters. The Babylonians did the work of God unwittingly. They had no thought of working out the purposes of God in so doing, but simply of fulfilling their own proud and lawless designs. The captivity and exile were invariably annulled by God. And did he allow Babylon to go unpunished? No, of course not, they suffered the same fate as the Jews albeit much more severe and permanent. To this day Babylon (Iraq) is still essentially desolate. It would never rise to its former glory. When God’s hour of retribution strikes, strange fingers appeared in the royal banquet hall and the letters of doom with appalling distinctness were etched upon the wall, even as the enemy was at the city gates… “…in that night was Belshazzar king of the Chaldeans slain,” and Babylon was a kingdom no longer and Israel once again became one. God will take away but if you repent…you will be restored. If you take things for granted there is a good possibility it can and will be taken away. Appreciate things when you have them. That includes people in your life. That won't always be the case. Its all blessing and gifts from the Lord. Never take them for granted because the minute you do, they might be gone. Familiarity breeds contempt...even for God. If He is not approached properly with reverence it ends poorly for everyone that tried.

Regardless of how Mr. Fox chooses to conduct himself around King Lion, there is one constant truth. King Lion is very powerful, dangerous and could easily take Mr. Fox’s life. ~ “The Fox and the Lion, Aesop’s Fables”

Warrior Saints

If one reads Leviticus, one sees a primary theme running through all of it: Holiness. The spiritual leaders of Israel were priests. The Christian as their successors are exactly the same. If every Christian is to be a holy priest in a holy priesthood, then they are the spiritual successor to the Levitical priests.

He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people’’ ~Leviticus 21:4.

They were in charge of the sanctuary of God; they taught the people the Word of God; they offered the sacrifices on God’s altar and when called upon, they determined the will of God for the people. They were set apart for a purpose that was unique among all other people. Their obeyance to the standard was militant in its precision and requirements. In effect the Levite priests were servant warrior priests. If these people see themselves as leaders lording over others, they have already fallen victim to mentality that will essentially make them useless to God. God will have difficulty working through these types of people. They’re to be servants, warriors and neighbors.

Warrior priests. They fought the spiritual battles through God. So too the Christians today. Said another way, Warrior Saints. Just as the military holds their warriors to a higher code of ethics, so too should Christians hold other Christians in obeyance and order. This idea is all over the Old and New Testament. What is an embarrassment for one Christian is an embarrassment for all. How one Marine behaves reflects the entire Marine Corps. Whenever we minimize the holiness of God, we’re in danger of minimizing human sinfulness, and the combination of these two errors results in the minimizing and demeaning of other Christians. What is worse and more damaging is that it defames the cross of Jesus Christ. We all know well the non-believers rallying cry against the Christians, “Hypocrite!”

Holiness isn’t necessarily just a thing (noun). It is also action (verb). God’s holiness that he imparts to us isn’t a static thing, like a block of ice or stone. Holiness is active and alive, a “sea of glass mingled with fire’’ (Revelation 15:2). Holiness speaks of action, movement and doing things at the human level. Holy and active like Jesus was in the Gospels. Jesus was especially active in the Gospel of Mark doing things for the kingdom. It is not an accident that the Greek word εὐθέως/eutheós, translated “immediately,” which appears 41 times. Jesus immediately did this or Jesus immediately did that. Holiness in action IS Christ. Though the word does not always mean “just then,” it serves to propel the kingdom forward with speed and and accuracy like an arrow in flight from a warriors bow.

Holiness also made God a servant as Philippians 2 clearly showed us in God serving as atonement for sin in his death. Just as a soldier is a servant in a much bigger cause. In God’s economy up is down and the servant is deemed mightier and more holy. In fact, to be the master in this world one must learn to serve. For men the trailhead for the path to holiness is found in humility. Warriors on a trail. Warriors marching on a path carved through this world. A journey that has rules and guidelines on a path laid out ahead of time by commander. We need to stay on the trail and go to where the trail empties out to. These are the places of spiritual engagement.

Philippians 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Yet even now as I type this, I see an absence of church discipline and high standards. Current Christian conduct indicates that we don’t take holiness too seriously. In our promotions, we try to “sell’’ the church to the world by conveying the unbiblical idea that Christianity is “fun’’. Current Americanized Christianity tries to show that every pagan ought to join our ranks and start living in our paradise. Sorry folks, a majority of the time we’re in a war zone or on a battlefield not a playground. The world is always trying to get Christians to acquiesce to their point of view. Succumb to their flawed thinking and sin. To not only encourage their sin but instead applaud it. No. Just no. Holiness is at odds with what the world is and purveys.

Eight times in Scripture, God said, “Be holy, for I am holy.’’ God’s commandments are God’s enablement. If He said for you to do it be assured He will equip you to complete that mission. Because He commanded a task, He assures us that it’s possible. Possible to do what? Live a holy life. To spread the Gospel. To be different from the world but still thrive. We don’t need to be the world to accomplish our mission. We need to be diligent and follow orders. I know based simply on observation and the fruits of their actions that a huge swath of Christianity is failing like the Jews did in the Old Testament.

Whatever else the church may be known for today—popularity, celebrity, smooth talking, business, buildings, budgets, crowds, busy schedules—it certainly isn’t known for its holiness. How many of these Christians do you know that you could honestly say, “He/She is a man/woman of God’’? The church is failing and it isn’t God’s fault. Then whose is it? I posit that it is the so-called teachers, leaders and wolves among the sheep. The Devil enters your life and churches every day. It’s your job as the warrior saint to root out the sinister element and expel it. It can come as ideas, feelings or even in human form.

Holiness and the ability to discern it begins at the altar of God in your life. It begins with the ability to admit our sin and repent from it. It begins in Scripture so we are trained enough to recognize when something isn’t holy. When it stands as a direct affront to God. If we think we're going to become holy because of my sincere resolutions, spiritual habits, or theological knowledge, we’re heading towards a cliff of certain failure. Apart from Christ, we aren’t capable. The Cross reveals to us God’s hate of sin while simultaneously showing us the path to holiness. The trailhead for the warrior saint is marker by the cross. Impossible to miss. It’s not the obedience to the letter of the commands given to us that gains us holiness either, it is the discipline to realize that the battle is won at the Resurrection. Everything else is just the enemy’s tactical diversion to throw us off his trail while we are in pursuit.

A lack of holiness is not just adversely affecting regular people, it is affecting Christians. The nation’s steady decline is not just the product of sins like pornography and drug use. It is the Christians not being salt and light in a dying world. The lack of holiness in Christianity is now contributing to the quickening slide of America into irrelevance. God promised His people that He would ‘vomit them out’ if they persist in their rebellion and that is exactly what is now taking place. Idolatry and worship of every single thing that is not God is rampant in and out of the American Church. Secondly, sexual immorality might now be more rampant inside the church than outside of it. These are the two sins that God especially singled out as polluting the land.

“Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants’’ (Leviticus 18:24–25).

What we are currently seeing transpire in America is basically God vomiting us out through the very land we are in. America’s decline is God puking us out like a vile taste in His mouth. The land is merely a symbol of God’s sovereignty over us. Christians should be doing all we can to uphold holiness. The individual Christian and even the church doesn’t have the authority to impose God’s laws on the citizens of America. The problem though is the church who was to be separate and a beacon on a hill is now practicing the things of the world. They are accepting it, conforming to it, becoming it. When the church becomes like the world, it will no longer have any influence to change the world as it IS the world. 

In this way holiness is not a private affair, it is a public/communal one. We either stand unified in obedience or we fall individually in disobedience. We are now in danger of not only losing battles but losing the overall war in America (and the world at large). Why are we not doing enough to help others? Why aren’t we reading the Scriptures for the correct answers instead of relying on subjective opinions of social influencers and self-proclaimed experts? We are we doing what makes us feel good instead of doing what is morally, ethically and biblically correct. We're in a war. A war needs warriors to carry out their duty otherwise people needlessly suffer and die. Pray for peace but know there will always be spiritual warfare.