Spiritual Correctness vs. Political Correctness; Our Testimony

[HKHaugan]

Spiritual Correctness vs. Political Correctness; Our Testimony

The context in which we operate is biblical thus being spiritually correct as opposed to politically correct. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by the Word (Rom.10:17).” Look at that context. Biblically, there are three major epochs, pre-Creation, Creation and post-Creation. For mankind the middle epoch, Creation, is the starting and ending point. It begins with God and ends with Him.

God was there before there was a beginning.
He is here now.
He is there after there is an end.

He has divided His middle epoch, Creation, into three stages, three major ‘historical’ events, three revelations---Preparing for Jesus, the Presence of Jesus and the Return of Jesus. After Creation the third epoch begins with Jesus returning and bringing in the promised ‘new Heaven and new earth’ as written in Revelation 21.

We live in the context of the second epoch, Creation and its second stage, Jesus' Presence. Creation is the product of a mind, a heart and a Spirit; the mind of the Father, the heart of the Son and the power of the Spirit. We have been spiritually made in that three-fold image to experience and share God personally. We were spiritually designed to live in a personal relationship with God and one another. The spiritual shape of God is our image; His self-conscious ‘I am,” His heart-nature and His Spirit nature. We were spiritually created to exist eternally by the will of the Father, in the shape of His Son with our life in the Spirit. We see in us the abilities we have been given to respond---belief for the mind, trust for the heart and faith for the spirit. All three perfected in the sinless human life of Jesus through faith.

As a way of life we believe in the authority of the Father, put our personal trust in the Son and faith in the guidance of the Spirit. We pray to the Father in the Spirit through the Son. Jesus is the spiritually correct Person, the perfect and balanced example of how to be spiritually correct. It starts with His faith and is freely given to us through His sacrifice on the Cross.

First, our entire context, visible and invisible, is spiritual and therefore to make sense out of existence, we have to think spiritually, see spiritually, hear spiritually, discern spiritually, decide spiritually and act spiritually.   The context of history then is first spiritual, then personal, then interpersonal and then material. It is all about being in a personal relationship with God and one another. So what we are really talking about is not grabbing the moment for myself through political correctness. Rather, it is far bigger. It's holding our every next moment in the Big Picture, the eternal context, spiritual correctness founf in Jesus.

Secondly, history is not mankind's story, ‘his’ ‘story’, which is the origin of the word ‘history’ (we pronounce it ‘histry’) being how man records his existence. History doesn’t start with what man thinks about himself and then his world. It is really God’s story, what He thinks about us and what He wants and what He did for us. Through Jesus and His Word, He made it quite clear. That's the Big Picture.

Real History is God's story, the spiritual ‘why’ that precedes Creation, the 'why' behind everything. The ‘who’ is Jesus revealed. The ‘what’ is the Word of God. It is about God revealing Himself and His kingdom ‘on earth as it is in Heaven.’ ‘His Story’ is the record of God’s restoration of what the devil had done to throw Creation into turmoil. ‘God's Story’ is God the Son becoming man to restore Creation’s balance through the spiritual process of sacrifice in death and rising to life in the Spirit. This means the Cross of Christ is where we begin to work out God’s intention and purpose for each of us in every next moment. ‘God's Story’ is the record of His recovery plan to bring every single person who responds to His invitation to have a personal relationship with Him.

When we make ‘history‘ to be ‘God's Story’, the story of Him, who He is and what He has done, then existence not only makes sense for the mind but it gives rebirth and shape to the heart and spirit. It cancels satan's attempt to capture humanity through political correctness. God's History is really spiritual correctness.

Let's revisit so-called 'political correctness', what it is, who operates it and how it operates.

First, what it is.

Right off we need to see it is neither political nor correct. Political (Gk. politikos) means it is how people are governed. Correctness in its political sense means the best way to govern. In our republic it assumes principles, order and authority as approved by “we, the people.” Not the minority but the majority. The idea of 'rightness' was defined spiritually in our Declaration of Independence as the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness with which “we have been endowed by our Creator.”

Political correctness is rampant self righteousness. You make up your own righteousness as you go along. Aimless egos venting their anger with themselves and extending it through the exploitation of fear, intimidation through accusation and manipulation of emotions. It attacks the inner vulnerability of individual past guilt and emptiness. It uses that unfulfilled anger in search of a cause to seize the moment as their opportunity to gain self approval through the approval of others. It is a loaded gun waiting for the impetuous approval seeker to point it. It has a hair trigger for those with low self worth, a sense of hopelessness, rejection and lonely frustration. It is the low self worth in the 'political correctionist' that looks to manipulate others with the same condition to fulfill their personal agenda. It is the embodiment of sin in rampant egotistic thought and behavior. It can be found in college professors, lawyers, students, drifters and any one who feels unfulfilled regardless of their status or position. What they don't realize is that they are the real victims, the ones that need our prayer and our testimony to the spiritual reality in Christ.

Second, who Operates It?

Simple answer: the devil and his spirits. There is nothing more clear than the personal depth with which this evil works. It manifests itself through self-justification, rationalization and emotional exploitation. It comes from a mind that is organized and experienced in fighting God, tempting and pursuing the hearts of individuals, always attacking weakness through fear and pride and maneuvering in the darkness to avoid recognition. Hear John Stott's view of the devil: “The world's opposition is strong and subtle. And behind these things stands the devil, bent on 'taking men alive' and keeping them prisoner. For the devil hates the gospel and uses all his strength and cunning to obstruct its progress, now by perverting it in the mouths of those who preach it, now by frightening them into silence through persecution or ridicule, now by persuading them to advance beyond it into some fancy novelty, now by making them so busy with defending the gospel that they have no time to proclaim it (Authentic Christianity, 1995 John Stott).”

Third, What It Does

“...now by frightening them into silence through persecution or ridicule...(above quote)” is political correctness in the raw. To be true to what political correctness really means is to see someone drawn in by the emotional rhetoric of the moment. Anyone who espouses its use is revealing their spiritual emptiness. Like moths drawn to light, they are drawn by whatever has momentary attraction. Political, social and religious rhetoric offer the safest and freest grounds for the ego to be rebellious. When the cause 'du jour (of the day aka 'cause celebre')' fades another is quickly found. They need to see the light of Jesus. They need to hear the eternal truth about Jesus. That's why our personal experience of Jesus is the key. Whether or not they respond in the moment of hearing, the seed will have been planted.

The importance of seeing everything spiritually places all issues in a spiritual context. We yield all control to the living Lord and His Spirit, the only true satisfaction, love and meaning. Then and only then does the intellectual meandering of secular logic show its emptiness and we are released from the conceit of its frustrating mind maze. This is so very much the reason we are called in the present to take up our cross and follow Jesus in every next moment.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe (1Cor. 1:18-21).”

The message of the Cross is the message we share both verbally and visually. It's the Cross of faith we take up in that part of the world we live in. Bear, care and share. “Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col.1:27).”