A big problem among Christians today is the distortion of Jesus' message. Christian teachers and preachers spread a lot of misinformation (pastorisms, if you want to use a mild word). The average Christian doesn't know enough about their own king to correct the falsehoods being spread. We are trying, through this site, to encourage you to represent him accurately. The more you understand Jesus' own value system, the better your decision-making will be, and the better you will be as a Kingdom ambassador and an example.

Have you ever hear any of the following phrases:

"Jesus says 'Judge not...'"

"Who am I to judge?"

"Who are you to judge?"

"Are you the sinless one who will cast the first stone?" (referring to the passage in John 8 about the adulterous woman)

Now most of the time when you hear these phrases, it wasn't because you were literally stooping to pick up a stone. Usually, the people who make these statements are trying to silence an uncomfortable truth. They have ears, but they don't want to hear. "Stoning" is their preferred metaphor for speaking "judgmental words." Well, since none of us are "sinless," I guess that means that Jesus wants us to say nothing, right?

Let's examine this claim.

As Henry van Til observed, culture is "religion externalized," meaning that your family's religious values will find their expression in a set of specific cultural choices:

• how you spend your "free" time
• what music you listen to
• what you watch (or refuse to watch) on TV
• how you dress (i.e. modesty, extravagance, fashion-following)
• who you spend time with and emulate as behavioral examples
• how you talk to others
• etc.

[The establishment and free exercise] clauses [of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution] have nothing of substance to say on questions of religious freedom. The original meaning supplies us neither with concrete answers to particular legal questions nor with any general principle, norm, value, or theory that might serve as a basis for working out such answers." (Stephen Smith, Foreordained Failure: The Quest for a Constitutional Principle of Religious Freedom, 16)

Official minute of silence
at the White House, after
the Sandy Hook shooting
“They have mouths,
but they cannot speak...”
(Psalm 115:5)

There are many Christians (mostly based in the United States) who are strongly promoting (so-called) religious liberty. Recently, many Christian businesses have been targeted by opportunistic lawsuits when the business owners refused the custom of some legally-favored group. Sometimes Christians involved in the government schools will experience some sort of restrictions on their speech or behavior, such as not being allowed to organize "official" prayers at sporting events.  Christian pastors have had their sermons subpoenaed. This supposedly creates a "chilling effect" on speech. 1

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to his disciples, saying, "The scribes and the Pharisees sat on Moses' seat. Therefore, all things whatsoever they tell you to observe, observe and do, but do not do their works; for they say, and do not do." — Matt. 23:1-3

Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in the "Hebrew roots" of Christianity. Perhaps because modern Christianity has gotten so far from Biblical culture and ethics, people are looking for a corrective, and they see something valuable in modern, observant Jewish culture (and there is definitely value there!). Maybe Christians have seen the church de-value Biblical law for so long, that their consciences have been pricked and they are trying to recapture what has been lost. Whatever the reason, "Hebrew roots" interest is something that ought to teach Christians that they have gone far off track from the culture and values that Jesus promoted.

The "hard sayings" of scripture are often the ones that we learn the most from. They break us out of our cultural preconceptions. They cause us to see the world through a different value-system. Since Biblical law is the written reflection of God's character, "hard sayings in Biblical law" are the ones that can teach us the most about God's character. It is God's value-system that we must internalize, throwing out anything in our own value-system which conflicts.

We begin with Matthew 15, where the scribes (who were the "law-experts" of the first century) had traveled from Jerusalem to Gennesaret (a region near Galilee). This shows how significantly they treated Jesus. No scribe is going to leave Jerusalem to go nit-pick your average street-preacher. This would be like a New York lawyer traveling to Smalltown, USA. They obviously considered Jesus a threat.

Subversive Civics: 101

Mural supporting
Basque self-determination

To put things in proper perspective, let's talk about something more controversial.   Did you know that there are many minority religious/cultural groups (such as the Basques) who want political self-determination and autonomy? Consider these two questions:

1. Do you oppose giving the right of political self-determination to minority cultural/religious groups?  If so, on what transcendent moral basis do you do so?
2. Do you support giving political self-determination to minority cultural/religious groups? When is the last time you told anyone else that? In other words, have you ever promoted this idea to anyone?

These questions are guaranteed to do at least three things: