A Quantum Leap in Humanity
We’ve been looking at how the Captain America series surprisingly holds a poignant and prophetic message for us. We discussed how the films show a division and conflict between Captain America and his superhero team over the role of government in their lives. In Captain America: Civil War, one side (led by Iron Man) wants to adhere to the worldwide pressure to increase government involvement. But Captain America and his side wants to be free from the potential restrictions and hidden agendas involved with this.
All of this plays into our current situation and some of the underlying division between conservative and liberal politics. This also gets at many other issues. In the movies we see how deception is at work, which keeps those who are pro-government against Captain America. But it’s important to note that those who are against Captain America are not bad. They just have a different set of experiences, emotions, and perspectives that leads them to agree that government accountability is the best way to go.
So obviously I’ve already played my hand a little bit. I’ve expressed how Captain America contains a strong parable highlighting the manipulation and deception that goes into establishing a stronger measure of “government oversight” in the name of good. But this issue is bigger than saying one side is totally right while the other is wrong. It’s way more nuanced and complicated than that. Hence, the Marvel superhero movies are perfect, because the audience is able to sympathize with both sides (and that is so important to remember as we move forward here).
Now before we really look at this “message” to the nation, I actually want to take a step back from “politics” and first look at things from a spiritual perspective. That may not be your cup of tea, but just think of it like green tea. It’s bitter but its got those good antioxidant things in it. We’ll get back to the current issues in our country soon enough.
Church & Government
When the church was originally birthed through Christ, there was an incredible amount of freedom associated with it. This is why it spread like wildfire amongst the whole Roman Empire. There was a newfound revelation of the grace of God given to mankind, and with that was also a new understanding of equality amongst humanity. When the church came together, there was also a clear lack of religious systems and hierarchy.
Early followers of Christ simply identified themselves as followers of the “Way.” They did not title themselves as a religious organization. Also, the leaders within the movement were considered “servants” of those who followed them. And people followed not by guilt or compulsion, but out of a natural respect and love. The leaders didn’t have official titles and there wasn’t this crazy organized system as we know it today. They met from home to home, regularly celebrating the Passover meal fulfilled in Christ (communion), remembering and declaring the grace of God and enjoying their new identity in Christ (see the book of Acts, chapter two). It was highly relational, family-like, and focused on freedom and love.
But all of that changed within a few centuries. About 300 years into the game, a Roman Emperor named Constantine came along and converted to Christianity. While this seemed like a major blessing to the underground and persecuted church of the time, it turned out to be quite a problem. Constantine saw the opportunity to create an empire-wide religion that would unite people under its banner. So he made Christianity a state-run entity and changed the entire nature of it.
You see, when Constantine did some research and looked at how Christians met and organized themselves, he was actually quite disgusted by what he saw. He didn’t like the simplicity and spontaneity associated with their gatherings. It didn’t jive with the regal order and power of the Roman government.
. . . so what did he do?
He added some “dignity” to it . . . along with a bunch of rules and edicts. He went on a campaign to make the church more “Roman.” He insured a state-wide system of governmental oversight and accountability within the church.
And this affected a lot of things.
For instance, people could no longer take communion in their homes together. Now they needed a person who was officially “sanctioned” and recognized by the state—a “bishop”— who could give communion. Furthermore, people could no longer sing spontaneously in their gatherings. Instead, professional choirs had to do the singing. Laity were separated from clergy and a structure of hierarchal authority was duly established.
A new system was created and much of the joy and miracles of the early church began to wane as a new season as institutionalization came forth. And this institutionalizing led to a great deal of corruption. While there were many good people involved with it, there were untold amounts of popes and bishops who abused their new empire-sanctioned power and allowed politics to become deeply embedded within the faith.
Also, the concept of “tithing” began to be taught more as a law that would bring a curse upon your household if you didn’t do it. This replaced the original apostolic teaching on money, which involved extreme generosity that comes from a cheerful and willing heart (see 2 Cor. 9). The key word there is willing. Giving was supposed to be linked with the will of the giver, not with the dictates of the religious authorities.
And in the midst of it all, the original message of Christ—the Gospel—was lost. People around the world literally started paying for something called “indulgences” to purchase their entry into heaven by buying bricks to build greater and higher cathedrals (with lots of offices and centralized administration). As with any man-made initiative and empire-driven agenda, the hunger for more growth brought about the need for more money to buy more bricks for the “church’s” agendas. And during this time, people lost a pure understanding of the grace of God. The wrath of God began to be highlighted with a focus on eternal torment populating the pulpits of the world in order to keep the masses in check.
(For a thorough and educational read on some of the above history, check out the book Pagan Christianity by George Barna and Frank Viola)
C H A N G E
But then something amazing began to happen . . . There was a “reformation” of the way people thought about church and theology.
This event, known as the Protestant Reformation, came with a lot of problems and its leaders were far from perfect. But the overall process was a powerful blow to the power structures of the day. People began to look at the Scriptures for themselves and discovered the message of grace and other concepts such as the “priesthood of all believers.” Much of this came through the widespread release of information through the invention of the printing press. The consolidation of power in a Roman/Greek system of government began to be broken up and the message of salvation by grace began to be recovered.
The Reformation was a key step forward in the evolution of humanity. (Note: This is not meant to bash the Catholic Church, as much of Protestantism has fallen into the same trappings of religious and systemic agendas. This is not one group’s problem, but all of humanity’s). The Reformation helped break up the state-run church and gave information to people in a way that helped them discover more of the original essence of the faith. Essentially, a recovery process began, which has continued to this day.
In recent decades, there has been a “reformation” of the Reformation. There has been a return to understanding true spiritual authority as servanthood along with a new understanding of oneness and grace. For those with eyes to see, freedom is occurring in the spiritual realm. The church is becoming more and more positioned to be the original entity it was designed to be. There is much work to do, but this is where we are headed.
The State
Ok, so with that being said, let’s turn our gaze back to politics . . . the state.
Similar to the Reformation, the founding of the United States of America was a quantum leap forward in the evolution of humanity. It was similar to the Reformation (and was actually influenced by the Reformation) in that it came with plenty of problems and imperfect leaders. Yet the overall process was a blow to the chest of monarchies and strong government oversight and control (with all the taxation and regulation that came with that).
Now here’s something that many people do not realize: The United States is not a democracy . . . it is a republic. There is a huge difference between the two.
In a democracy, the majority rules. But the problem with that is throughout history the majority is often swayed into believing and doing terrible things. But in a republic, the “rule” stems from a Constitution, which protects the rights of individuals from the majority. The forefathers of this country understood that people could be swayed into certain destructive paths, so they created a document that would protect the rights of citizens even if the majority wanted otherwise.
A republic is also based on limiting the power of government. Its foundational goal is to only utilize government where government is absolutely needed, such as with national infrastructure or military. It is far from a perfect system, but the creation of this republic has led to some of greatest innovations and breakthroughs of mankind. The creation of the United States has also birthed the greatest export of charity to the poor and needy throughout the world. People from all over the world have risked their lives to come by boat or plane to enter into the borders of the U.S. in an effort to leave communistic and totalitarian governments. As a result, the powers of darkness absolutely hate the creation of the United States and have worked hard at infiltrating it, mocking it, and highlighting its evils (the devil is the called the “Accuser” for a reason).
The Child of Humanity
So let’s look at this idea of “the evolution of humanity.” Here’s what I mean by that:
Think of humanity as child who is growing up into maturity.
When a child is still a baby, she needs to be completely taken care of by her parents—otherwise she’ll die. But as she grows, more and more freedom is given. Eventually baby gates are taken away and the child has more reign within the house. Soon electrical outlet covers and other forms of protection are removed. Soon enough, the child is old enough to stay in the house alone at times, and eventually gets on a bus all by herself to go to school without mom and dad. Later on, she gets a car. The hope is that she will eventually leave the house and won’t have to rely on mom and dad at all.
This is a process of growth that comes with a lot of risks, problems, and bumps in the road. As any parent knows, the growing freedoms of their child are a terrifying venture. It leads to a plethora of unknowns and what-ifs. When the baby gates are taken away, bruised knees and broken arms can happen. When that child becomes an adolescent and is allowed to drive, accidents can happen. When they leave for college, they might mess up their life completely. But these unknowns have to be embraced, otherwise growth and responsibility won’t occur. Sooner or later, the baby bird has to be kicked out of the nest.
Right now, it seems that mankind as a whole is still in a toddler stage. We’re basically still learning how to share with each other, how to talk nice, and how to curb oral fixations!
But yet in all seriousness, mankind has advanced and matured. If you don’t think mankind is maturing, read a little bit about how people treated each other in the 1200s or the B.C. eras. There’s a lot of vile things happening today, but it is nothing compared to the things that have gone down throughout history. The barbarism that we see in an organization like ISIS was actually modus operandi in the world’s top governments as far as how they routinely treated people (cutting off heads, burning whole families together, viciously torturing people without trial, etc.). On top of this, human slavery (an acceptable form of economic power in centuries past) has been blacklisted from a majority of nations. Along with that, the rates of things like prostitution and poverty have actually gone down while things education and the longevity of life is steadily increasing!
Grace is Very Messy
Now here’s the problem. Here’s the crux of everything. I hope you’ve been paying attention and following along.
Mom and dad in this analogy obviously represent the law and the oversight of government restriction. For a season, monarchies and heavy-handed governments have been needed otherwise we would have died off as anthropological infants. But through the creation of republics and through the reforming of spiritual thought, we have advanced and matured.
And so to go back to stronger governmental oversight is to move backwards. It can be likened to putting on diapers again and fortifying the baby gates. For when we return to the shelter of law, death is the ultimate trajectory (see Romans 7:10). And the long-term fruit of communistic or socialist governments hold the proof of this (so does putting someone in a highly legalistic church).
The development of the United States of America (and the release of the Reformation) was a time to separate from mom and dad a little bit… Now I’m not talking about complete separation. Honestly, we’re probably about 700 years out from that. Government intervention is still needed as the world matures and wakes up to Love. But the point is to separate more and more from law into a place of grace, freedom, and personal choice—willingness.
And here’s the thing: Grace and freedom is really messy.
When you’re potty-training a child, there’s going to be some crap in the underwear. It’s something you have to accept. Because, the fact is, if you keep them in diapers, the crap will keep flowing unabashed.
That’s why on the spiritual front many Christians have resisted the message of grace and many even wrongfully fear it, because of misunderstanding (just like Iron Man’s crew). They think that an extreme message of grace will give people “a license to sin.” But what they don’t realize is that the law is actually the real license to sin. Keeping people in the diapers of fear and control and strong hierarchical systems actually prevents their growth and keeps the turds flowing in their pants while leaders get to do the clean up work week after week (and then call that “Christianity”).
Global Dirty Underwear
It is very messy to disengage from government regulation. Taking down the boundary fence of high taxes or strong regulation is going to mean the growing toddler is going to scrape his knee or poop in his pants. And with that being said, let me add some sobriety into this article, and I pray you do not hear me white-washing or dismissing the seriousness of what I’m about to share:
A scraped knee or dirty underwear on the global and national level is incredibly hurtful and messy. It’s a mess that looks like people using capitalism to exploit their workers, or people using second amendment rights to purchase a weapon and kill others senselessly. This is no joke. The maturation of humanity comes with an incredible price-tag, just as love and free-will itself comes with an incredible price tag.
Many people have looked honestly at the evils of the freer American market and have made an untimely judgment. They see a toddler learning to walk, but their focus is on the painful falls and cuts. Therefore, out of genuine fear and concern, they want to impose boundaries again. They want government control and regulation to help keep the child in check. And we should sympathize with this, because the growth process is indeed very painful and people are still hurting under the problems caused by others within an increasingly free society (free in the sense of operating under limited government intervention).
But all of this is missing the forest for the trees. For every bad fall and bleeding bruised knee, there are signs of growth all around. The reason people can even debate these issues in the way that we do is due to the fruit of this system. We have things like Facebook that would not have been possible under previous government structures. And so speaking of Facebook, you also have people like Mark Zuckerberg who have prospered through these freer markets who are now giving away billions and billions of dollars to serious needs within the world. And he and his wife are doing it willingly.
This is the case of someone who confesses a liberal position and is demonstrating his desire for social justice through a personal choice.
And this is the way to see this happen. The goal is not to tax Mark Zuckerberg and bring that money into a failing and agenda-driven bureaucracy, but to allow him the freedom to give his money away (which will have far more impact than a tax). The choices the Zuckerbergs are making by directly using all their future profit (way more than they would be taxed) will lead to massive change in the future. The same goes with people like Bill Gates who is contributing towards incredible breakthroughs in the realms of medicine and technology. Or Elon Musk in the realm of energy and space travel (NASA was like mom and dad and now the children of the government-sanctioned space age are growing up).
This is the real way to see long-term change, because it comes from the heart. That is the ultimate maturity man needs. As long as we baby man by imposing more rules and taxes, we will not grow. If a child is never allowed to fall, they will not learn to rise.
Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg would not exist within controlling governmental systems of antiquity (or present-day Venezuela or China). Such potential is stifled by imposing a socialist-type system. This is because the government consolidates the wealth and props up programs that do not implement lasting change (the inner cities are a case in point).
And I’m not speaking out of my ass here. I’ve now worked in both the education system and in the realm of social welfare. I have seen the failing bureaucracy of governmental oversight that limits freedom and misallocates money unbelievably.
Now please understand something: There are wonderful people within these systems. They have hearts of gold—many teachers and social workers who are doing the best they can, and many of their efforts are fruitful in their own individual spheres. But most would be honest and say that something is dreadfully missing in the big picture.
Feeding the government beast with taxes only leads to more taxes. History proves this over and over and over again. Politicians will say they only want to tax the wealthy, but the more you feed something with social programs, the more it will need, because of the sociological nature of bureaucracies (and cathedrals). Taxation will certainly creep down into the middle-class and the impoverished until the state is completely running the show again with “common core standards” being applied to not only to high schools, but to colleges and pre-schools as well (and yes, these things are already in the works).
At this point, let me stop and say again that I am not writing off taxes and government assistance. I’m not saying we avoid caring for the “broken trees” within the growing forest. Training wheels are still needed on the global scale. Compassion is an absolute must and many conservatives do not deal with this issue well (we’ll come back to that next week). But again, the key is moving forward, not backwards!
Government-driven systems bring us backwards to the law as our savior, which hides the true identity of mankind from shining (which will come through the implementation of solutions within local communities and individual lives).
The Growth Happening All Around
Growth takes a lot of time. And we have a lot of “stumbling” in our forward momentum. One huge and current stumbling block involves greedy CEOs and corrupt influences on Wall Street. But while people want to demonize Wall Street (and there is much to demonize), there is incredible good happening in our world (including through many over-the-top rich CEOs). In comparison to other nations, our ability to help the world is staggering. On top of this, the world poverty rate is decreasing!
Did you read that last line?
Since 1990, over 1 billion have been lifted from poverty.
One billion…
Much of this is due to the continued failing and breaking up of communistic philosophies and the propulsion of the republic-based systems of government that is ironically built on limiting the power of government.
Captain America (the nation) is responsible for a lot horrible things in this world. A lot of collateral damage that has caused pain, which we have to honestly address and look at. But overall, the grace on this country is moving humanity forward.
But don’t think this is a purely patriotic or libertarian essay. The change in the world really has to do with the ongoing spiritual reformation that is occurring as the message of grace fills the world and the idols of religion fall (including controlling and Pharisaical elements of conservative Christianity).
And so I find this quite ironic—both religious Christianity and big government liberalism are both things we have to mature beyond—despite the pain involved.
And this is at the heart of the Cold Civil War we are in as a country.