The Godspeed Institute: Global Fundamentalism

Global Fundamentalism

The Godspeed Institute program link (mp3)

March 27, 2011

Carole Hallundbaek speaks with Peter Huff, the author of ‘What Are They Saying About Fundamentalisms?’ and a leading authority on global fundamentalism and the anti-modernist impulse in world religions. Currently the Besl Family Chair in Ethics/Religion and Society at Xavier University, he has also been the T. L. James Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Centenary College, where he taught Introduction to Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, World Religions, and Global Fundamentalism.

Topics in this informative hour include: fundamentalism as a critical topic in matters of religion, politics, war and violence, even the threat of violence; how he defines Fundamentalism; how it has it grown over the years; some core beliefs / understandings of Fundamentalism; how it takes shape among the world religions; the anti-modernist impulse in world religions; how Fundamentalism works in similar fashion for Christians as well as Muslims and other faiths; misconceptions of Fundamentalism; the Fundamentalist concept of God, and the role of human beings; the future of Fundamentalism; and more.

The Godspeed Institute home page

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Richard Horsley: The Political Life of Jesus

The Political Life of Jesus

Speaker: Richard Horsley

Date Recorded: 2006-07-19 program link (mp3)

Series: Teaching Radical Alternatives

Summary: The research of Dr. Richard Horsley, author of "Jesus and Empire", strongly suggests Jesus was as much a political as a religious figure, more a promoter and defender of community than a personal savior.

Notes: Check the 10 Commandments. Four of them deal with the exclusivity of God and the other six are clearly political and/or economic in their essential thrust. Richard Horsley's talk, originally titled "Jesus: Buttress or Challenge to Empire?" is based on a life-long study of the Bible "as literature". He dispells the fallacy that church and state have ever been separate. He covers the ambivalent situation faced by the U.S. as it emerged from Europe both as the new Promised Land and the new Rome. He puts a worldly spin on the teaching of Jesus based on original sources and the perspective gained by reading entire chapters of the Bible at once rather than one line at a time.

Some of Dr. Horsley's numerous publications include Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder; Religion and Empire: People, Power and the Life of the Spirit; and Jesus and the Spiral of Violence: Jewish Resistance in Roman Palestine.

Teaching Radical Alternatives web page

God is a Family

Fire and Brimstone

The Bread of Life

Our Very "Being and Doing" Must Be of God(-ing)

Marred and Forgotten

Systemic Erasure

communitarian Church of God 1

communitarian Church of God 2

Passover Letter: Let God's People Go !!

A Passover Letter to the COG "Ministry": LET GOD'S PEOPLE GO !!

Matthew 20:25 But Jesus called them [unto him], and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But *it shall not be so among you*: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister [G1249 diakonos; attendant]; 27 And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28 Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Mark 10:42 But Jesus called them [to him], and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. 43 But *so shall it not be among you*: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister [G1249 diakonos; attendant]: 44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.

Luke 22:25 And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. 26 But *ye [shall] not [be] so*: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve. 27 For whether [is] greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? [is] not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth.

Matthew 20:25-28, Mark 10:42-44, and Luke 22:25-27 are clear definitions of, and a clear recognition that, an imposed systemic is employed within the COG [Church of God], ** in direct violation of Christ's instructions **. These testimonies clearly show that there is a very serious *error* within the COG which has caused and continues to cause extremely grievous repercussions !! "... For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might *destroy* the works of the devil" [1 John 3:8]. This is the purpose, the commission of the Church, to destroy the works of the devil, not to mimic and employ his systemic !! The nature of the beast is directing the COG, not the nature of God. We must understand that God does NOT desire to exercise lordship over us - it is Satan's desire to exercise dominion over others; God's purpose, desire, is the exact opposite: ** it is to serve His creation ** IN RELATIONSHIP, and this, our relationship, *is* the GOVERNMENT of GOD !!

The COG is not a hierarchy, a one-man rule with a professional ministry, ranking the "gifts of God," nor is it a professional eldership, with many "gifts of the ministry" within the eldership.The COG is a "ministry of gifts" imparted to all those within whom the Spirit of God resides, a common ministry of the brethren, each with a gift, or gifts that God has given them, freely sharing all that God has freely shared with them [in a reciprocal relationship, with each other and with God], for the edification of the body of Christ, for the work of the ministry, their ministry. The work of the ministry [the ministration of gifts] belongs to the entire body of believers, equipped, guided, and encouraged by a mutual sharing of God's gifts, to expound and apply His Word with wisdom and power.

The body of Christ is held together by every part working together. Each Christian has a ministry given to them by God - each has stewardship responsibilities, authority, and full accountability to God. There is no professional ministry, no corporate church [the COG Inc.], no ranking of spiritual gifts, no division into ministry and laity, no copyrighting of God's truth [God owns the copyright; no money, no price]. No man has the right to put his name on any understanding given by God, an understanding to be placed on the common table, in proper humility [with no thought of reward or recognition], for all to eat. We are all brethren, no more, no less !! The COG is not a business, the COG Family is a community !!

The COG community is patterned on local, autonomous, loosely-confederated congregations, with those mature in the spirit [elders] chosen within each, gently leading in servant authority, leading by persuasive example [we love Christ because He first loved us], not bosses over God's church, not imposing, but guiding [as arbiter with Christ] each congregation in their gifted dialogue, their reasoning together, with the spirit of God leading, to an understanding of the truth of God, and abiding in that truth.

Christ's desire is to use the church-community to show the world a wholly new form of authority. But this new form of authority is nullified by the top-down, command-style structure that prevails in the COG today. The Gospel is negated even before it is proclaimed, because we deny its power with the way we conduct our lives and our church business. As a result, God is robbed of His glory and His image is distorted before the watching world. Nothing could be more serious than this !!

The COG must withdraw out of this world's systemic [be ye separate; be not partakers], we must withdraw out of its unholy and unrighteous ways into God's separate and self-sufficient community [Holy and Righteous in *all* our ways; a *living* witness]. How we stand in *relation* to our fellow man and his society as his future judge [1 Cor 6:2, the saints shall judge the world, the angels] is paramount. We cannot partake of another's sin, or be the cause or occasion of the same, or our role as judge is negated !! The COG systemic must be *of God* NOT of man [we are under judgment now]; how can we mete out judgment when we are guilty of complicity in the very sins being judged ?? The COG must be the alternative community, the *full* preaching and witness [our citizenship wholly conformed to the Gospel], the light that the world can see and turn to. We must not participate in this imposed, evil systemic [the false god of business and its monetary system, its instrumentality of oppression], helping to build holocaust, while at the same time planning our escape. God's people must strive to be self-sufficient in *all* their ways, ie., negative-interest community currency(-ies) used within the confederated, communitarian community-congregations.

Our withdrawal into God's community is only possible if we truly go to our scattered brethren [in love, in prayer, trusting in God] to resolve any differences [instead of accusing, marking, calling our judgment "tough love"]; we have more in common than in difference [the carnal wall of division and strife is money, position, and personality]. The COG has a different mind [God's mind], a different attitude [Holy, righteous, spiritual character], and a different purpose in life [to destroy the works of the devil]. The COG walks a different path, guided by God's MAP [mind, attitude, purpose] and spiritual compass [the Holy Spirit showing us the way]. The work of the COG is to believe on Christ [John 6:29], to be committed unto, to be persuaded of, to trust, to follow Christ, in all of His Ways. All things are possible with God !!

The various COG Inc.'s must be disestablished in total. Restitution must be made to *all* brethren [past and present; we must forgive each other]. God's people must be let go, must be set free by the professional ministry, who are opposing God both in mind and in form. They too, must take their proper place within God's ministry of gifts. We must all go to God in deep humility, in weeping and mourning, and ask for His forgiveness. We must ask God to lead us into His righteous community, to establish His community filled with agape love and healing !! We must repair the breach, and restore the paths to *dwell* in. The Ministry of Reconciliation begins within the Church of God.

Holy Days: Family and Community

The Seven Annual Sabbaths

Our inherent value = love and truth; the communitarian way, the environment instituted in the pages of the OT and exemplified in the NT has a built-in reminder to maintain "the continual", the daily worship (the practise of the way): the annual Holy Days, the festivals; the shared symbolic behavior so important to fellowship and cognition.

The seven annual Sabbaths instituted forever not only the Holy Days [God's Plan of Salvation for humanity] but the way of life within, explicit in the harvest feasts: the communitarian way, the *path* [personal achievement of true humanity] - the first day of the sacred year (the annual beginning); the Passover (the sacrifice, the reconciliation, the acceptance; the SAGE attempt to silence); ULB (the putting away of sin, the commitment); Pentecost (the gift of God; a society of the gift); the fall harvest season, Trumpets, Atonement, FOT, LGD: the return Christ, of His message; the putting away of the adversary (Mammon; the alienated, privileged attitudes); the harvest feast (feast of booths, the millennium, the communal reconstruction); the judgement (the Book of Life opened; all of humanity to share in the way).

The Passover observance at even (sunset), in the NT the Last Supper; the wine and unleavened bread taken by the Baptised in acknowledgement of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus for the remission of sins and in rededication as the very flesh and blood of the "body of Christ"; the Night To Be Much Remembered, observed the next sunset, was instituted to remember the Exodus of Israel from Egypt (typifies sin), the 7 Days of Unleavened Bread [ULB] begin; they picture the removal of sin from our lives; no leavened bread or products of any kind (the puffed-up lives, attitudes); the first and last days are annual Sabbaths; next is Pentecost, which pictures God's Gift of the Holy Spirit to the Christian Community, the 3rd annual Sabbath.

The Feast of Trumpets pictures the return of Christ; the Second Coming when Christ directly intervenes in world affairs and establishes the government or Kingdom of God over mankind; the beginning of the Millennium; the next event is pictured by the Day of Atonement; the binding and separation of Satan, the author of all sin (the transgression of God's Ten Commandments) away from mankind until after the Millennium; next is the Feast of Tabernacles [FOT] or Booths, a feast of ingathering, a seven day festival where we leave our homes and gather together if possible; it pictures the Millennium when Jesus Christ is Lord and King over all the earth, when the Holy Spirit is granted to all mankind alive and born during the Millennium and the earth is prepared for the next great event to take place; that event is pictured by the Last Great Day [LGD], the resurrection of every man, woman and child who has ever lived/been conceived (including the stillborn and aborted, placed into their parents arms); the dead stand before God; this is the Great White Throne Judgement, not a condemnation to a hell as traditional Christianity believes, but a time when the "Book of Life" is opened to all of humanity and they are given their first opportunity to receive God's instruction, to learn his way of love based on the 10 Commandments and ultimately to be born into the very Family of God.

The spring (3 Sabbaths) and fall Holy Days (4 Sabbaths) picture the plan of redemption for mankind and are explained thoughout the Bible; by keeping them as commanded by God every year, the Church (the community) is kept in constant remembrance of God's plan for mankind and man's destiny to be born into the Family of God and ultimately to share in the rule and continuing creation of the universe.

MM Book 2 Chapter 10-17

When we come in contact with, or come up against, “character” that *lacks* God [in others or in ourselves], it is an opportunity to express God: INIQUITY PURGED BY MERCY AND TRUTH [mercy/forgiveness] – all of us have been casualties of the prevailing systemic character, the fear “bullet” [arrow] that is shot deep into us; God will heal the “inflicted wound”, and heal us !! — we must pull-back “for” engagement [from the evil; we are in conflict of interest]; WE MUST *OCCUPY* COMMUNITY, WE MUST *PLACE* GOD’S PRESENCE INTO WHEREVER WE ARE [location or situation]; GOD’S CHARACTER AND ABILITIES ARE OURS TO PLACE !! – WE *ARE* GOD FAMILY, WE EMBODY [our being] AND CREATE [our doing] COMMUNITY, THIS *IS* OUR RESPONSE-ABILITY !! — OUR MINISTRY [ministration] IS ** OUR RELATIONSHIP(S) **, OUR COMMUNITY !! – AGAPE LOVE IS THE GIFT, AND THE GIVING !!

“… The three main festivals in the Bible are Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles – in the physical application Passover is the festival of political freedom, Tabernacles of economic freedom, and Pentecost, the central and most important, is a festival of spiritual freedom [see Harris L. Selig, "Links to Eternity", p. 370; Richard C. Nickels, Giving and Sharing, "Pentecost Paper"]:

PASSOVER = POLITICAL FREEDOM – EXODUS (out of bondage), Christ Systemic;

PENTECOST = SPIRITUAL FREEDOM – 10C, Covenant People, Holy Spirit, COG;

TABERNACLES = ECO-NOMIC FREEDOM – Ingathering, Harvest, KINGDOM OF GOD.

Previously Posted September 24, 2010

The Annual Feasts and Holy Days MMmeta article

MM Book 2 Chapter 10 web page (widescreen)

MM Book 2 blog home