sermon: Strategies for Interfacing with Babylon Without Becoming Assimilated (Part One)

David F. Maas
Given 11-May-24; Sermon #1762; 68 minutes

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Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

Today around the world we see hatred everywhere, such as hatred for Russia, or hatred for the Jews, while Christian-professing churches demonstrate hatred for God’s laws like the sanctity of marriage, and instead endorse infanticide and sodomy. On May 1^st, 10 short days ago, I sadly learned that the United Methodist Church, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., voted to repeal its ban on LGBT+ clergy, as well as prohibitions on its ministers from officiating at same-sex weddings. Delegates overwhelmingly approved the changes, 692 to 51. This decision particularly sickened my heart because this same institution paid my salary for 13 years while I taught at a historically black Methodist college in East Texas.

Similarly, the over-reaching military-industrial complex has been surreptitiously, but enthusiastically and energetically, pushing America toward another devastating world war, allegedly seeking to complete what WWI failed to accomplish—to end all wars—and the war to really end all wars (WW II) failed to accomplish. The same thing can be said about the other offspring of Jacob in Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, as well as the tiny locale of brother Judah in the state of Israel, who has been perpetually under siege of Hamas/Hezbollah for decades issuing a continual intifada uprising, continually digging tunnels and firing rockets into brother Judah’s postage stamp domicile since 1987.

God’s called-out saints have been warned to never look for any human, political, or military solutions for the present conflicts the world is enduring.

Jeremiah 10:23 “Oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not man who walks to direct his own steps.”

Permit me to read this passage in the Amplified Classic edition: “O Lord [pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people], I know that [the determination of] the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man [even in a strong man at his best] to direct his [own] steps.” The antidote to this glaring deficit is given in Proverbs 3.

Proverbs 3:5-7 Trust [trust, trust] in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.

Scroll forward to Proverbs 16:3, and then to verse 9.

Proverbs 16:3 Commit your works to the LORD, and your thoughts will be established.

Proverbs 16:9 A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.

Over my last 58 years on my spiritual journey, I can point to multiple occasions, which I have recorded in my journal, of some horribly bad blunders and missteps I had made, after which God forcefully yanked the chain and set me about on a new, safer, and more productive course. Tragically, we can reject God’s leadership, as our foolish ancestors did in I Samuel 8:5, “make us a king to judge us like all the nations” (possibly the second most stupid decision after Mother Eve and Father Adam consumed the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden).

On November 11, 1947, Winston Churchill declared “Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

One of the American Founding Fathers, John Adams, the second President of the United States, declared on October 11, 1798, that, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

Herbert W. Armstrong, agreeing with John Adams, consistently argued that a democratic system or constitutional republic, is only effective if the majority (at least 51%) respects and adheres to the laws of Almighty God. Otherwise, chaos and instability will result, which we are clearly seeing today throughout all modern Israel. (Dave Maas has inserted an addendum on all three statements: “When the majority of the constituents in a democracy or a constitutional republic reject God’s laws, democracy is a far more hideous form of government than any authoritarian dictatorship which honors God’s honors or respects God’s laws.”)

In an article published by the BBC on March 3, 2020, titled “Russia’s Putin wants traditional marriage and God in the Constitution,” we learn that President Vladimir Putin (a man who the media have been trying to brainwash its citizens to hate with a passion) wants marriage to be defined as the union of a man and a woman in a revised constitution, ruling out gay marriage and gay adoption of children.

In the final analysis, brothers and sisters, there is far more support for God’s laws on the sanctity of marriage in Uganda, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and, yes indeed, behind the walls of the Kremlin (that venue which Americans and British subjects have been programmed to hate), than in the hopelessly corrupt “progressive,” woke, God-hating, morally bankrupt Israelitish governments. When I taught at Wiley College 12 years ago, my dear friend and colleague from Kenya, Dr. Solomon Waigwa, Chair of the Department of Religion, once declared to me, “It certainly appears that Africa needs to send missionaries to America to save it from its vile immorality,” to which I replied “amen, amen, and amen.”

The governments administered by Jacob’s apostate children should have retained a deeper appreciation for and a more mature understanding of God’s laws than any of the multiple Gentile nations on the earth. After all, it was God’s purpose that His chosen people were to teach the nations of the world by modeling His law.

Deuteronomy 4:5-8 “Surely, I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as the LORD God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgment as are in all this law which I have set before you this day?”

But it appears that our political leaders have seared their consciences irreparably, at least until Jesus Christ returns to govern, smashing the current system into oblivion, crushing and blowing away every trace of the kingdoms of this world, establishing His own Kingdom that will never pass away (referencing Daniel 2:34-35, 44-45). The very people who should have known better have become a perpetual thorn in God’s side.

Amos 3:1-2 Hear this word that the LORD has spoken against you, O children of Israel [then and now] against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying: “You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities.”

In John Ritenbaugh’s insightful Bible study series on the book of Amos, we remember that after the Gentile nations were thoroughly punished for their grievous inhumane sins, the harshest and most severe punishments were rendered to Israel and Judah because they rejected God’s law with impunity just like the current governments are doing today. Those of us who have been called into the Israel of God (Galatians 6:16) need to exercise care that we never compromise, despise, and denigrate God’ law as the offspring of physical Jacob are currently doing, calling for a horrendous curse from God. The confused and bewildered children of Jacob, as well as the rest of the world, have no clue as to what constitutes a peacemaker. Attaining this valuable skill qualifies one to become an offspring of Almighty God.

My last sermon in the series, “Strategies for Escaping Babylon,” I had intended to be part 8 of 12 parts, but somehow the overall focus had changed gears. Instead of escaping Babylon, the new focus seemed to emphasize interfacing with Babylon without becoming assimilated into its evil clutches. Consequently, I plan to develop a new series of messages up through the Feast, giving strategies of how to live in Babylon, while keeping the focus on the coming Kingdom of God. Remember Jesus said,

John 17:15-16 “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.”

So here we find ourselves. What do we do? How do we live here in Babylon? We are, after our calling, pilgrims, aliens, sojourners, foreigners, often unwelcome immigrants, but most importantly Ambassadors for the coming Kingdom of God.

II Corinthians 5:20-21 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteous of God in Him.

As called-out members of the Israel of God, we must remember that “Our citizenship is registered in heaven (Philippians 3:20) from where we eagerly wait for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to establish His Kingdom on earth” (Zechariah 14:9). We must emulate the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11:13, many who had not yet received the things promised in their lifetimes but having seen them [with the eye of faith] and greeted them from afar, acknowledging that they were strangers and exiles on the earth just as we are. We need to learn to perform the role of an Ambassador, which I discussed at length in my article, “How to Conduct Ourselves as Ambassadors of Christ,” remembering:

1. We are representatives of another culture, another way of life.

2. In this capacity, we do not give our own opinions, but advance the positions of our home country.

3. In this capacity, we function as servants or stewards representing our own country (namely the Kingdom of God and the heavenly Jerusalem) faithfully.

4. In this capacity, we practice hospitality, courtesy, and graciousness, exuding good will.

Proverbs 13:17 reads, “A wicked messenger falls into trouble, but a faithful ambassador brings health.” As faithful ambassadors of Christ, we ought to bring health, refreshment, and comfort to the people with whom we come into contact. Consequently, in this first installment of “Strategies for Interfacing with Babylon without Becoming Assimilated,” I will endeavor to explore some practical strategies to become peacemakers or children of God.

(Incidentally, I took several cues from my late mentor and brother-in-Christ, Charles Whitaker, who in his October 2006 Feast of Tabernacles’ message “What To Do in Babylon,” provided practical advice for interfacing with our neighbors. I also drew much inspiration from Peter Eddington’s insightful April 12, 2018 “Beyond Today” sermon-article, “How to Live in Babylon.”)

I suppose some in the Colton congregation wonder how the short-fused, trigger-tempered Dave Maas would have the audacity to even broach this subject. It reminds me of a conversation I had with Linda Helscher, my piano accompanist when I served as the choir director of the Glendale congregation back in 1978, as we were driving to rehearsal. I casually asked her, “Do you suppose that the ministers have as much difficulty resisting sin as the rest of the congregation.” I was aware that her husband was a local elder in our Glendale congregation. She quickly replied, “Are you kidding? Where do you suppose they get the ideas for their sermons?” Well, if unresolved problems serve as the criterion, I probably have enough sermon ideas to last for at least 200 years or more if God lets me live that long.

Over the years, I have frequently touched on the topic of peacemaking and diplomacy, including, for example, “Godly Tact and Diplomacy,” “From Sheriff to Shepherd: Are we willing to be defrauded?,” “How to Conduct Ourselves as Ambassadors of Christ?”, “Removing Bars of Contention Between Brethren,” just to name a handful, but Dave Maas would be the first to admit that he has been a perennial late bloomer when it comes to fully exercising or displaying the characteristics of a peacemaker.

In his July 1999 Forerunner Personal, “The Beatitudes, Part Seven: Blessed Are The Peacemakers,” John Ritenbaugh suggested that when the world is obsessed with glorifying its leaders, peacemaking is undoubtedly the most difficult task we could undertake, explaining:

Peacemaking aims to reconcile groups or individuals at odds. The difficulties in this are threefold. First, keeping one’s biases from unduly influencing the tenor of the argument.

In his sermon two weeks ago about walking in wisdom, Richard Ritenbaugh reminded us that one of the troubling variables in walking circumspectly in wisdom is our own bias; we see things from biased perspectives. We have had different life experiences. We are all hampered with bias, even the self-proclaimed “Fair and Balanced” networks. There is no such thing on the face of the earth as persons or institutions without bias, either in us, the educational systems, the political systems, especially the national media, particularly those boasting they are unbiased or impartial.

Richard reminded us in his message two weeks ago that wisdom motivates us to keep searching for the elusive truth which the world cannot receive—only God’s Spirit (John 14:17) and His Word (John 17:17) can lead us. Furthermore, humorist Mark Twain has also cautioned us that, “It is not the things we don’t know that can hurt us; it is the things we know positively that aren’t so.”

Nicolaus Copernicus, renaissance astronomer and mathematician once declared, “To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” At this time in our sanctification process what we do not know is infinitely more than we know, even if we factor in those truths God has revealed to His called-out saints.

The second difficulty John Ritenbaugh alerts us to in his 1999 Personal on the “Beatitudes: Blessed are the Peacemakers,” consists of “finding common ground from which agreement can be built.” Some of us do not feel we have anything to learn from other cultures, or for that matter, anything from other scattered splinter groups in the greater church of God, feeling our position is superior to all the rest. This can be troublesome because people can be highly competitive, contentious, stubborn, and driven to “win” regardless of the cost. Some will pull everybody else down with them just so they do not appear to “lose.”

This ugly trait was demonstrated in the 1965 British film Sands of the Kalahari, in which a group of people try to get their bearings after surviving a plane crash into the Kalahari Desert in Namibia, Botswana, and South Africa. Brian O’Brien, played by Stuart Whitman, a big game hunter, appears to be the best and most skillful survivalist of the group. Sadly, we soon learn O’Brien’s motives are far from noble. Thinking his own chances will be improved by the absence of competition, he ruthlessly seeks to eliminate his fellow survivors, one by one, intending to leave only Grace Monckton (played by Susan York) alive, an “Eve” for his self- generated role as a supposed new “Adam.”

Returning to John Ritenbaugh’s July 1999 Personal, discussing the difficulties of being a Peacemaker, he states that the third major difficulty is “finding ways to change the views of those at odds to affect a change of position.” John concludes that “Getting people to take a different point of view of a problem and change their minds about how a conflict should be resolved can be arduous and draining.”

My purpose for this message is to re-examine our assumptions about how we interface with Almighty God, our siblings in Christ, our family, our friends, our business associates, alien faiths, and yes, even our worst enemies.

Richard Ritenbaugh, in his April 29^th sermon on walking circumspectly, insisted that, in attaining accuracy in any human endeavor, whether shooting an arrow, steering a car, operating a power tool, playing a musical instrument, or yes, even developing the diplomatic skill of an ambassador, we must attain control of a multiplicity of variables, any of which may prevent successful attainment of the objectives. The accuracy variables we use to connect with God, our family, our friends, our co-workers, the public at large, and our worst enemies all require radically different skills and tactics.

When the apostle Paul admonished us in Romans 12:18, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men,” he tacitly implied that some factors lie far beyond our control, but we must circumspectly view the wide range of options before us and strive for precision and accuracy, as Richard suggested in his previous message.

The immense difficulty of calculating and controlling multiple variables was forcefully impressed upon me a week ago when my son Eric took us driving in his Tesla electric car, demonstrating the capability of a driverless app, which Tesla temporarily provided its owners. This app enabled us to allow a computer program to drive us to a destination, moving through surface streets, main avenues, crowded intersections, debris on the road, merging traffic, entering, and exiting freeways anticipating what other drivers are doing: aggressive drivers, timid drivers, distracted or preoccupied drivers, as well as inclement weather conditions, unexpected detours, etc. Eric informed me that to program a driverless car, multiple millions of computer calculations per second are required to protect against vehicular mishaps. Even with the millions of calculations generated per second, Eric still felt compelled to take it out of the automatic mode because there were some variables not yet accounted for in the present configuration which put us in danger.

As all the multiple variables have not yet been accounted for us to safely program a driverless car, most of the variables in the peace making or diplomacy skill, transforming us into God’s offspring, have not yet been wired safely into us.

On the last Day of Unleavened Bread, in his insightful message on filling the void, my part-time sparring partner and full-time brother in Christ, Austin Del Castillo, reminded us that “As we continue our spiritual pilgrimage, our understanding of Scripture should not remain static. There will always be deeper ways to understand Scripture—particularly in those things we assume to be well-established truths.” I am reminded of a statement made by my dear mentor Bob Hoops in a Bible study he gave in Rapid City in 1974, declaring, “We will be held more accountable for the shabby treatment we’ve given to other people than our keeping Pentecost on the wrong day.”

Realizing that some of the things I had assumed about peacemaking and diplomacy needed a timely inspection, shoring up, and adjustment as needed, I have endeavored to examine the life of the apostle Paul, one of the most skillful diplomats (second only to Jesus Christ) the world has ever seen. Let us look at his partial set of credentials in Acts 22.

Acts 22:3 “I am indeed a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia , but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, taught according to the strictness of our fathers’ law, and was zealous toward God as you are all today.” [Notice how he always finds common ground.]

According to a footnote in the Amplified edition, Gamaliel, who was the leading scholar of the Torah from AD 20-40, taught a school of 1,000 advanced students. Too often even responsible Bible commentaries concentrate on Paul’s feistiness and rabid zeal, but totally ignore his sterling example of tact and diplomacy. As ambassadors of God’s Kingdom, we should aspire to follow the example of this master diplomat, who was schooled under both Jesus Christ and Gamaliel—the same Gamaliel who advised:

Acts 5:38-39 “And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan is the work of men, it will come to nothing; but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it—lest you be found to fight against God.”

Like his mentor Gamaliel, the apostle Paul sought to maintain peace and stability. Remember, in his letter to the church at Rome, Paul writes, “Live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18). In other words, we have a responsibility in this diplomatic endeavor. At one point, he explains the difficulty of his task when he encounters diverse peoples and cultures. He warns,

I Corinthians 10:32-33 Give no offense, either to the Jews or to the Greeks or to the church of God [which in its current scattered state is probably the most formidable task of all], just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.

Paul’s mentor, Jesus Christ, states,

Matthew 18:7 “Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!”

Some of us are past masters at creating offenses: wise as doves and harmless as serpents!

Romans 1:14 I am a debtor to the Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to unwise.

The Amplified edition adds: “Both to Greeks and to barbarians (to the cultured), both to the wise and foolish, I have an obligation to discharge and a duty to perform and a debt to pay.” The full nature of Paul’s sense of debt or obligation to both the Hebrew worldview and the Hellenistic Greek worldview has never been adequately explained in the standard Bible commentaries. I fear Protestant commentators have greatly oversimplified the nature of his debt to the Greeks, barbarians, and Jews, glossing it over with the statement, “Paul felt a massive obligation to preach Christ to everybody: Greek, Jew, barbarian, learned, unlearned,” which was certainly a major contributory factor, but that explanation somehow misses the mark in explaining Paul’s core intent.

Sadly, commentaries contributed by the Hebrew Roots Movement do not contribute much more help. As a matter of fact, they have complicated the issue by deliberately disparaging and denigrating aspects of Hellenistic contribution, even calling into the question their right to draft a Greek New Testament, claiming adamantly that the New Testament is a Hebrew document and should not have been written in Greek, totally ignoring that it was God’s doing that Christ’s Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles, and the Revelation of Christ to John all be recorded in Greek.

Paradoxically, it is by harmonizing these seemingly contradictory Hebrew and Greek outlooks that we are provided keys to understanding how the middle wall of partition will be permanently destroyed. In Ephesians 2:14, we learn that finally a contentious barrier had been permanently broken down, when former Greeks and Jews are united or reconciled in the commonwealth of Israel. Almighty God, in His infinite wisdom, has chosen to use significant aspects of both Hebrew culture and Greek culture or mindsets to canonize His Scripture, and has evidently determined that we have something to learn from both Hebraistic and Hellenistic worldviews (which are symbiotic rather than adversarial) to understand His plan of salvation.

Interestingly, in 1891, a formerly confirmed agnostic, Ivan Nikolayevich Panin, became an ardent believer in Christ after devoting over 50 years of his life observing the numerical structure of Greek and Hebrew texts, finding an unmistakable mathematical relationship underlying the text, leading to his 1891 publication of The Structure of the Bible: A Proof of the Verbal Inspiration. Panin, who is often called the “father of Bible numerics,” and his successors observed that Hebrew and Greek are the only languages out of the world’s approximately 7,139 languages in which the letters and numbers are merged, and the only languages which can reveal numerical gematrical patterns, such as the heptadic structure, showing that the number 7-7-7-7 appears as a watermark in both the Greek and Hebrew texts. However, it fails to work when we put the Koran or the apocryphal books of the Catholic Bible through the same process. The amazing numerical qualities of the biblical texts, both the New Testament Greek and the Old Testament Hebrew, testify to an intricacy of design which can only be accounted for by a supernatural origin, just as the complex design in creation can only be explained by a supernatural origin, able to be apprehended by the spirit in man even without God’s Holy Spirit (Romans 1:20).

We could perhaps characterize Paul as the most cosmopolitan of Christ’s apostles. He was not only schooled in both the Hebraistic and the Hellenistic cultures, but he was a Roman citizen who knew how to exercise those civil privileges whenever they became needed. By understanding the counterplay of the Hellenistic worldview and the Hebrew worldview, we understand the context in which Paul could be all things to all people and still be at one with God and His law.

I Corinthians 9:19-22 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

In attempting to become all things to all men, Paul had to find some common grounds of agreement that both he and the other person shared. We, of course, share basic characteristics with every other human being on the earth—all are the progeny of Father Adam and Mother Eve, all are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) though not everyone is yet aware of that truth. We have something in common with every man woman and child with whom we come in contact and should strive to cultivate commonalities we all presently share, accepting every human being as a potential spiritual sibling and a member of the God Family. Furthermore, Paul admonishes us in Philippians 2:3 that we esteem others better than ourselves as our Lord and Savior did for all of mankind while we were hopelessly trapped in sin.

In our diplomatic endeavor to become all things to all people, did Paul ever suggest that he would compromise with God’s law under special circumstances? Absolutely not! Does Paul ever endorse “situation ethics”? Absolutely not! Does Paul ever embrace syncretism? Absolutely not! Paul understands that we need to guard and jealously protect certain core beliefs such as God’s laws and statutes, which we hold as non-negotiable. But we find a rather wide variety of marginal beliefs (such as choice of music, automobiles, food, clothing, etc.) upon which we can compromise without sin.

The apostle Paul had a keen sense of what part of his belief structure was negotiable and what was not, having the remarkable knack to make things that he and other people agreed upon to seem like mountains and those he and others disagreed upon seem like molehills. In I Corinthians 6:12, he expresses the realization that just because something was lawful does not mean it is the thing to do— especially if it will offend someone. In Romans 14, Paul sets some guidelines on dealing with marginal issues. If becoming a vegetarian or a teetotaler for a day proves the price of peace and not offending, he considers it a small price to pay.

We might find it interesting that one of the most popular “modern formulas” for negotiating and conflict reduction, while credited to psychologist Carl Rogers, was lifted almost verbatim from the technique, method, and practice of the apostle Paul. Unlike traditional methods of persuasion—based upon debate and argumentation—this method of diplomatic persuasion does not attempt to cow someone into submission or make one’s will prevail over the other person. In both my composition classes at Ambassador and Living University, I purposely substituted this technique, replacing the traditional argumentative essay.

The so-called Rogerian strategy (actually the apostle Paul’s strategy) of conflict reduction, the following three steps are included:

1. We convey to the other person that he is understood.

2. We identify a possible area in which the other person may have a valid point or even a superior position.

3. We find shared moral qualities (honesty, integrity, and good will) and aspirations to help in discovering a mutually acceptable solution.

Paul realized that if we aspire to get people to change their minds about anything, we have a responsibility to understand at least where they have come from or what has made them what they are. Paul’s understanding of the Greek culture was not casual or shallow but instead highly intense revealing he had thoroughly studied the literature and philosophy of Greece. In a March 9, 2017 article titled “Greek Writers Quoted in the New Testament,” Spencer McDaniel states, “One thing that many people do not know about the New Testament is that it actually contains several quotes from certain ancient Greek writers. In fact, there are a total of at least five quotes from four different Greek writers, all incidentally quoted by the apostle Paul, including:

Acts 17:27-28 in which Paul tells the Athenian philosophers that “their own poets have said, we are God’s offspring” was quoted directly from two Greek poets Epimenides of Knossos and the Stoic philosopher Aratos.

In Acts 26:14, “it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” is a direct quote from the Greek tragedy Agamemnon.

In I Corinthians 15:33, the phrase “evil communications corrupt good manners” was a direct quote from the tragedy Aiolos by Euripides.

In Titus 1:12, the phrase “the Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies” comes from the Cretan poet Epimenides of Knossos.

Now, according to Spencer McDaniel, whether or not Paul ever attended a live play, he nevertheless had extensive knowledge of classical drama, judging from the fact that he quotes from at least four different classical playwrights. The point is that Paul felt compelled to study the culture in depth—the literature, the art, and the philosophies of the people with which he interfaced, drawing commonalities and shared concepts, if possible, tying them to the new insights to which he is leading.

When I took my first class at Ambassador College in the fall of 1974, Comparative Religion, we learned the basic ins and outs of the world’s religion—not to syncretize or assimilate but to learn about the things in which we share in common, whether very few or many, that is, aspects of God’s law which this group honors or follows, as well as the destructive heresies which clash with God’s law. Each member of the class studied a different church or alien faith (Roman Catholic, Methodist, Baptist, Church of Christ, Mormon or Latter-Day saints, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Eastern Orthodox, Christian Scientist, Conservative Judaism, Reform Judaism, Pentecostal, Disciples of Christ, or whatever else was available in East Texas).

To a theology student, or perhaps a future minister in God’s church, this was a practical and valuable exercise, for we learned that we cannot interface with each entity the same way, just as the driverless car cannot interface with an aggressive, timid, or absent-minded driver the same way. Over the years, I have profited from the insights learned in this class. For example, having taught at five different church colleges in my life, I found it helpful to study the doctrines and beliefs of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Disciples of Christ, and the United Methodist church before teaching their clientele, learning the things we shared in common and the potential things upon which we could clash. Emphasizing our commonalities and downplaying our clash points led to a comparatively smooth experience on all three campuses.

Living here in Simi Valley, I come into frequent contact with Seventh Day Adventists, Jews, Mormons, a wide variety of Evangelical and Pentecostals, the usual mainstream “Christian” denominations, as well as atheists, agnostics, and nones. My neighbor directly across the street is Muslim. My gardener, Herbierto Fernandez, is a practicing Jehovah’s Witness, who greets me every Friday morning, “Como esta, mi hermano,” after which he gives me a Spanish lesson after completing the yard work, at which time we discuss Las Dias Ultimato (the last days) and sigh and cry for the vile abominations which have overtaken our country. Herbierto, knowing we keep the seventh day Sabbath and holy days, graciously honors our wishes to refrain from working on such occasions.

In my extended family exist many different faiths, including Islam, Lutheran, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Episcopal, and Mormon. My first cousin from San Antonio texts me every morning sending inspirational messages to which I reply, “You have a wonderful, blessed day.” After my father’s death, I have made it a practice to call my brothers every month, focusing upon those things we have in common, and avoiding those unpleasant things upon which we disagree—I need to start practicing that here in Colton.

As the apostle Paul has modeled for us, the only spiritual common ground we can share with anybody—called or not called, friend or enemy—is their acknowledging or keeping a portion of God’s law. Believe it or not, we have much to learn from our arch enemy, Satan the Devil, such as his skill at memorizing scriptures and his relentless, blatant zeal at achieving his goal. I am not suggesting that we share his goal, but rather the intense zeal he exercises in accomplishing that goal.

Herbert W. Armstrong often declared that God’s laws regarding Sabbath keeping, clean and unclean meats, and tithing, all well in force before the Law of Moses was instituted, are still in force and are universal, designed for the entirety of mankind, not just God’s called-out ones. The word “law” we sometimes mistake for a rule or set of rules, but God’s laws always work in a certain way, just as the laws of gravity. God has demonstrated that He will bless the act of tithing, whether one is called or not, and whether one does or does not yet have the full counsel of God. In his August 1934 Plain Truth, article, “God Prospers the Tither” Herbert W. Armstrong writes John D. Rockefeller accepted the Lord’s challenge to profit the tither at eight years of age, when he began tithing. Did he prosper? I would say so.

Similarly, William Colgate, the great soap manufacturer, took the advice of an old sea captain when he was a small boy to tithe all his income to the Lord’s cause. Colgate started to prosper, inspiring him to give two tithes. Atill he prospered, inspiring him to give four tithes. His prosperity continued to increase, inspiring him to give half of all his income. And still he prospered. A more recent example is an inventor of earth moving machines, Robert Gilmour Le Tourneau, founder of LeTourneau Technologies and Le Tourneau University, reached the point of giving 90 percent of his income to the Lord. As he puts it, “I shovel out the money, and God shovels it back—but God has a bigger shovel.”

God’s laws are as automatic as the laws of gravity and whoever keeps them are blessed by Almighty God, believer or non-believer—just as He makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. The point is that we with our base calling (not many wise, not mighty, not noble, but base, foolish, weak, despised, I Corinthians 1:26-27) have much to learn from the movers and the shakers of the world, people exercising exclusively the spirit in man with no help from God’s Holy Spirit.

We have much to learn from people who have not been called, people we sometimes smugly and contemptuously look down on as unconverted. My own late father with whom I was estranged for several years when God called me into His church, behaved in many ways more converted than his son. I can count on one hand the number of times I ever heard a coarse or profane word come out of his mouth except when he playfully tried to get a rise out of mom. He stated that anybody who must use curse words demonstrate their inability to use the English language.

The Sabbath is a special sign of a special covenant between God and His people. Even those who have not yet been called or have not accepted the full counsel of God have been blessed by Sabbath keeping. Of all of Jacob’s children, only the offspring of Judah have retained their national identity. The rest of Jacob’s children (save for the called-out Israel of God) have entirely lost their identity. Hebrew essayist Ahad Ha Am, writing more than 100 years ago, stated: “More than the Jews have kept the Sabbath, the Sabbath has kept the Jews.” Lorie Johnson, in her article “Secrets to Longevity,” reports, “It’s no surprise Seventh Day Adventists live an average of 10 years longer than most Americans. Every week, beginning with sundown on Friday, they rest for an entire day. This allows them to recuperate from the week and recharge for the one ahead. They also use it to spend time with friends, family, and God.”

The sons of Ishmael and the sons Esau are all Abraham’s descendants just like all of Jacob’s siblings, and consequently they are our relatives and extended family as well. The Islamic halal laws in the Koran follow the same guidelines as the clean and unclean laws prescribed in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. As we recall, these laws have been in force since creation, way, way before Moses, and thoroughly understood by Noah [Genesis 7:2]. The children of Ishmael put to shame the major Christian professing religions by strictly adhering to the halal laws as well as the major Christian professing denominations on abhorring idols and graven images.

I am not trying to persuade anyone to become a Jew, Seventh Day Adventist, Muslim, or Jehovah’s witness, but instead, in the process of peace-making, we find aspects of God’s law the only possible criterion for commonality in any relationship. In our walk among the various clienteles of Babylon, we should remember, in the words of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, that we do not really have allies, but we do have common interests and we should make the most of them.

The same thing is true for the multiple splinter groups in the greater church of God which have split off from the WCG. While I concur with John Ritenbaugh that God scattered the groups, they are still under God’s supervision and watchful eye. I have always felt uncomfortable with the continuous sheep wars which ensued, putting each of our groups on a continuum between authoritarian and assimilating into the world. In just about every one of these groups, many of them are shepherded by my former students, including this one. I feel that there are more things we agree on than disagree on, but the most important thing to all of us is to perfect our own relationship with Almighty God before we foolishly compare ourselves among ourselves—as the apostle Paul warned us in II Corinthians 10:12, that it is not wise.

The breakup and scattering were executed by God for our safety, putting us in remote quarries to chisel, hammer, and polish us where we have the most problems. I was intrigued and inspired by Christian Hunter’s message on the timing of Solomon’s Temple on April 24^th, drawing parallels between Solomon’s physical temple and God’s spiritual temple, which we as living stones are being hewn and shaped right now. In I Kings 6:7, we learn that Solomon's Temple (and evidently in God’s spiritual Temple) the stones were not cut and shaped at the sight of the Temple but brought in from afar from a variety of remote quarries. The Berean Study Bible informs us that the Temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the Temple while it was being built.

I speculate that our individual congregations within the greater church of God serve as busy, sometimes noisy quarries in which chiseling, pounding, hammering, and polishing by Almighty God are preparing us to merge or be fitted with the Chief Cornerstone in God’s Holy Temple. Until that happens, we are warned in I Corinthians 4:5 to judge nothing before the time until the Lord comes. In the meantime, we must strive to make peace with our spiritual siblings as we have made with our Lord Jesus Christ, loving all our fellow human beings (including our most hateful enemies) as ourselves.