I don't think the anger should ever go away. It shouldn't always be a roaring blaze, or we would wear away. But the spark of righteous indignation against hidden or justified sin among believers should always be there. Jesus' anger never went away. It was there when he drove the money changers out of the Temple, it was there when he healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, it was there when he warned the Pharisees about the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it was there when he warned the people against the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees' and then furiously rebuked those scribes and Pharisees, it was there when he told the parable of the vineyard workers against the Pharisees, it was there when he stood before the Sanhedrin and refused to defend himself from torturers and false witnesses. He forgave sinners, yes, but he was always angry with the wickedness committed by those who knew the truth but held it in unrighteousness. As he said to Pilate, those who knew God's Law but betrayed Jesus to the Roman authorities were guilty of greater iniquity than pagan Pilate.
When God's name is used as a vain, empty, boast to excuse or justify unrepentant wickedness, then then God will hold those boasters guilty for taking his name in vain. It isn't to ignorant unbelievers to whom the Lord will say 'Depart from me, I never knew you", but to those who said "Lord, Lord", but did not obey what he said. I have just finished reading TEI, and as you note in the last chapter, the prominent evangelical interpretation of the Last Times isn't the only interpretation. One thing that gets missed by the prevalent dispensational interprative system is the fact that all the letters to the seven churches are a warning to all churches throughout all ages. Vengeance is the Lord's. He will repay unrepentant churches for their wickedness by taking away their candle. It would be well for those Western denominations obsessed with wanting to win the culture wars all costs to ask themselves if perhaps the culture is becoming more hostile to Christianity because the salt has lost its savour, and is now being cast out to be trampled underfoot.
Cling to what is good; let go what is bad. I see the Lord working in his body by using media to expose the bad. As part of God’s voice, thank you for speaking up. The cost to you has been tremendous, yet you are faithful to speak. I pray for you and all who seek justice and love mercy on behalf of the abused. Know you are not alone.
I’m glad you’re angry, Karen. This is nothing more dangerous to evil than a just person’s anger allied to a will and power to do what is good, and destroy evil. According to Jesus, it would have been better for these people to have a “millstone hung around their neck and be cast into the sea” rather than harm these little ones. And then the lying, and active use of all their church power to defend evil...it is the end of their world, and none too soon.
I am utterly overwhelmed and grateful for the response to this post. Truly. The Spirit is at work...in the meantime, I am working my way slowly through the many messages of support and solidarity I’ve received. I will respond to each one as I can. 🩵
A loved one was abused as a child by a leader in an SBC church. This person’s family continues to eat the bitter fruit of that leader’s sin. The first victims are only the first victims. Generations are harmed. This hard, hard advocacy you do by speaking out serves more people than you may ever know and future generations you will never see in this life. For these ones I love and the multitudes unknown to me, thank you. May the Lord continually make His fellowship known to you. May He constantly remind you that the heaviest blows and hottest flames fall on Him. I believe His wing covers and shields you as you undertake this work in His way, for His sake, in dependence on His Spirit. 💙🙏🏻💙
(Also, that Donne in your last note is my favorite of his poems. It was shared with me ~30 yrs ago and I’ve not forgotten it or the person who sent it to me. Looking forward to your discussion of it!😊)
And I’m also so sorry to hear about your direct experience with abuse. What you say about it effects is so true, and we need to never lose sight of those harmful effects that are unending.
During a graduate school course in spiritual formation, we read After Doubt by AJ Swoboda. I so appreciate how he encourages us to examine and consider what to keep and what to leave—without cynicism, as you have described. It’s so challenging! I will continue to pray for your healing and peace. Thanks for sharing these timely and valuable thoughts.
“The pen is mightier than the sword,”- and when that pen is in the hand of a child of God using it to fight evil alongside Him, it’s far mightier than she can even imagine. Keep the pen in your hand Karen. Never put it down. God keeps its tip sharpened, and is guiding your hand to excise evil.
Anger IS a spiritual gift. I believe that’s why SO MUCH OF CHRISTENDOM, throughout history, is riddled with such horrific abuse and injustice. BECAUSE WE’VE BEEN GASLIT TO BELIEVE FEELING ANGRY AT ALL IS SINFUL. And it categorically is not. Anger is a feeling we can use FOR GOOD. It’s a gift. It propels us and emboldens us, if we let it. Anger is the strongest motivator of CHANGE.
Sorry about all the capitals. My keyboard must be sticking. AGAIN.
I’ve sat with this for a bit, and I’m popping back in to share a line I heard from an old Beth More podcast I heard this week. I think the original simulcast was held in 2013. In a talk about a lot of “no longer(s),” legalism, and grace she says, “Grace is the only fire hot enough to burn down a living hell.” I think I really like that line in the midst of finding one of my own personal “no longer(s).” I think you might like it too.
My, oh my. What a way 🤯🤯🤯 to articulate the Holy fire that is grace. I don’t think grace is some fluffy blanket, that’s for sure 😭😭😭 Miss Beth. A modern day Jael. Tent pegging satan on the daily. Miss Karen too. The true Jael’s of our day. We need to hold them up in prayer.
Just comes to mind — their pens are actually a tent peg entwined with the Spirit stabbed through satan’s skull @ Karen Swallow Prior @ Beth Moore
My feelings regarding the subject of this essay are very complicated, and I doubt I can quite capture what I want to say. I don't think what I feel is anger, but anger adjacent. The world is filled with people like that kinky couple in Florida who presume to dictate moral standards and political leadership while engaging in threesomes and in the instance of the husband, likely engaging in rape. In Indiana, a similarly moralistic group cited Hitler approvingly. My I-do-not-care-what-you-thinks cannot be more complete as directed towards these moralists. They just fully have nothing to say that I would consider worth hearing. They have lost me COMPLETELY.
On my own journey, this really accelerated when, as governor of Indiana, Mike Pence refused to pardon a friend who had been wrongfully convicted of robbery resulting in serious injury.
I should mention that my friend was pardoned by Pence's successor to the IN governorship. For his part, Pence should read James 5, about knowing what is right to do and not doing it.
I have been praying for some time that God will show me how to feel rightfully angry about injustice without becoming an angry or bitter person. I don’t want my existence defined by anger. There are far too many people like that in the world. But I think this is something the Lord has to accomplish. I can’t will myself into it. Righteous anger can veer so quickly into either unrighteous anger or apathy, both equal vices. Finding that balance is a Spirit thing. The best I can do is keep reminding myself of the true, the good, and the beautiful. I keep telling myself there will be a resurrection. God is breaking our world to remake it, and I look forward to seeing what he creates.
You beautifully articulated this, Amy. I’ll be thinking about your thought — ´God is breaking our world to remake it, and I look forward to seeing what he creates.´ This is deeply profound.
And Amy, I’m a farmer — mostly cut flowers. I’ve been so angry — I can’t even say for sure it’s all been righteous anger but it is my hope. Anyway, I grow flowers and homeschool my children which forces me to fight to see the good + beautiful and I think He uses that to ´save’ me (not theologically, but actually — Jesus is all I’m trusting in for actual salvation). After my Dad was tragically killed coming up three years ago, I needed something beautiful to dwell on, something to nurture and tend, and to have purpose — somehow to make the world more beautiful. It’s been healing, grounding and anchoring to the Holy Spirit through prayer in the fields. I’m not even sure this makes sense but in some way I have experienced it + know it to be true.
I’m not bitter. Just angry + sad + motivated to leave my mark of love + beauty on this world — it’s my way of leaving the world more beautiful (check out the children’s book, ´Miss Rumphius’ — it’s so beautiful + inspiring. My children (some are adults now) + I know much of it by heart + quote it often to each other) and of fighting the dark.
He is faithful. And in my experience, you don’t have to get it all right or perfect. He blesses genuine offering with a heartfelt posture of worship and love, and He multiples my fallible offering. He knows our hearts.
Amy is always an encouragement to me with her sharp mind and shepherd’s heart.
And Molly, I’m so heartened to know you exist--that you have found and live out the truth that there is beauty in this world and it is a balm and a source of life. God didn’t have to make this world beautiful (or maybe he did, being himself?). Beauty has a purpose and just being what it is it has so much to give us. I love that you farm flowers. One of my dearest friends who lives here where I live does too. 💐
Well, they’ll have to get around a whole circle of us. And I gotta tell you, Karen is FIERCE. I won’t tell you what my superpower is but we have your back.
I've seen similar things on a more minor scale (if you can call it that) at a different church I used to attend. I'm not sure how it was ultimately handled, but I think the church leadership cared too much about "not rocking the boat" and the reputations of their friends, over the adolescents of the church.
It was a truly horrific time for me during my last few years there, but it taught me so much and God brought me so far. Someday soon I’ll write about it.
Thank-you Dr. Prior. I started to do it, and if anything, I think it's putting me on the path to full forgivness and letting it go, both things I struggle with.
I’m grateful for the pause that allows us all to ponder the battle we are in. God does not want us to be ignorant or unprepared. Your writing and transparency remind me that we aren’t in this battle alone. As I get older and see more that disappoints and angers me, I needed the reminder of the fine line between naïveté and cynicism. As always, thank you for sharing.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your words are so powerful. Your book has been so helpful for me too. I am praying for your continued healing. Thank you for continuing to wrestle and share what you are learning.
The anger stage on you is holy fire. A beautiful thing.
Thank you, friend.
I don't think the anger should ever go away. It shouldn't always be a roaring blaze, or we would wear away. But the spark of righteous indignation against hidden or justified sin among believers should always be there. Jesus' anger never went away. It was there when he drove the money changers out of the Temple, it was there when he healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath, it was there when he warned the Pharisees about the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it was there when he warned the people against the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees' and then furiously rebuked those scribes and Pharisees, it was there when he told the parable of the vineyard workers against the Pharisees, it was there when he stood before the Sanhedrin and refused to defend himself from torturers and false witnesses. He forgave sinners, yes, but he was always angry with the wickedness committed by those who knew the truth but held it in unrighteousness. As he said to Pilate, those who knew God's Law but betrayed Jesus to the Roman authorities were guilty of greater iniquity than pagan Pilate.
When God's name is used as a vain, empty, boast to excuse or justify unrepentant wickedness, then then God will hold those boasters guilty for taking his name in vain. It isn't to ignorant unbelievers to whom the Lord will say 'Depart from me, I never knew you", but to those who said "Lord, Lord", but did not obey what he said. I have just finished reading TEI, and as you note in the last chapter, the prominent evangelical interpretation of the Last Times isn't the only interpretation. One thing that gets missed by the prevalent dispensational interprative system is the fact that all the letters to the seven churches are a warning to all churches throughout all ages. Vengeance is the Lord's. He will repay unrepentant churches for their wickedness by taking away their candle. It would be well for those Western denominations obsessed with wanting to win the culture wars all costs to ask themselves if perhaps the culture is becoming more hostile to Christianity because the salt has lost its savour, and is now being cast out to be trampled underfoot.
Thank you for sharing these important reminders--these TRUTHS--that somehow get so overlooked.
So glad you threaded this to TEI...I had no idea when I was writing that all that would follow. It seems the Lord was preparing me. Amazing.
Dear Dr. Prior,
Cling to what is good; let go what is bad. I see the Lord working in his body by using media to expose the bad. As part of God’s voice, thank you for speaking up. The cost to you has been tremendous, yet you are faithful to speak. I pray for you and all who seek justice and love mercy on behalf of the abused. Know you are not alone.
drLS
I am clinging for dear life, my friend! Thank you for seeing and for praying.
I’m glad you’re angry, Karen. This is nothing more dangerous to evil than a just person’s anger allied to a will and power to do what is good, and destroy evil. According to Jesus, it would have been better for these people to have a “millstone hung around their neck and be cast into the sea” rather than harm these little ones. And then the lying, and active use of all their church power to defend evil...it is the end of their world, and none too soon.
Amen. And amen.
I am utterly overwhelmed and grateful for the response to this post. Truly. The Spirit is at work...in the meantime, I am working my way slowly through the many messages of support and solidarity I’ve received. I will respond to each one as I can. 🩵
A loved one was abused as a child by a leader in an SBC church. This person’s family continues to eat the bitter fruit of that leader’s sin. The first victims are only the first victims. Generations are harmed. This hard, hard advocacy you do by speaking out serves more people than you may ever know and future generations you will never see in this life. For these ones I love and the multitudes unknown to me, thank you. May the Lord continually make His fellowship known to you. May He constantly remind you that the heaviest blows and hottest flames fall on Him. I believe His wing covers and shields you as you undertake this work in His way, for His sake, in dependence on His Spirit. 💙🙏🏻💙
(Also, that Donne in your last note is my favorite of his poems. It was shared with me ~30 yrs ago and I’ve not forgotten it or the person who sent it to me. Looking forward to your discussion of it!😊)
And I’m also so sorry to hear about your direct experience with abuse. What you say about it effects is so true, and we need to never lose sight of those harmful effects that are unending.
Thank you for your compassion. 🫂💙
Your words are so beautiful to read. Thank you for sharing them. And I especially love that connection to the Donne poem! 🥰🙏
During a graduate school course in spiritual formation, we read After Doubt by AJ Swoboda. I so appreciate how he encourages us to examine and consider what to keep and what to leave—without cynicism, as you have described. It’s so challenging! I will continue to pray for your healing and peace. Thanks for sharing these timely and valuable thoughts.
Thank you for praying and for these words of encouragement. I'm going to check that book out, too.
“The pen is mightier than the sword,”- and when that pen is in the hand of a child of God using it to fight evil alongside Him, it’s far mightier than she can even imagine. Keep the pen in your hand Karen. Never put it down. God keeps its tip sharpened, and is guiding your hand to excise evil.
Trusting him, I will do my best. Thank you for this encouragement and affirmation. It helps.
You do anger so very, very well. Directed carefully and consistently, anger is a spiritual gift, I do believe.
Shew. That seems hard and profound. But I thank you for it.
I agree with Diana. You are stewarding this well. May the Holy Spirit in you blaze on.
Anger IS a spiritual gift. I believe that’s why SO MUCH OF CHRISTENDOM, throughout history, is riddled with such horrific abuse and injustice. BECAUSE WE’VE BEEN GASLIT TO BELIEVE FEELING ANGRY AT ALL IS SINFUL. And it categorically is not. Anger is a feeling we can use FOR GOOD. It’s a gift. It propels us and emboldens us, if we let it. Anger is the strongest motivator of CHANGE.
Sorry about all the capitals. My keyboard must be sticking. AGAIN.
Happily too much! M ☺️
Yes. This is very true. THANK YOU!
I’ve sat with this for a bit, and I’m popping back in to share a line I heard from an old Beth More podcast I heard this week. I think the original simulcast was held in 2013. In a talk about a lot of “no longer(s),” legalism, and grace she says, “Grace is the only fire hot enough to burn down a living hell.” I think I really like that line in the midst of finding one of my own personal “no longer(s).” I think you might like it too.
My, oh my. What a way 🤯🤯🤯 to articulate the Holy fire that is grace. I don’t think grace is some fluffy blanket, that’s for sure 😭😭😭 Miss Beth. A modern day Jael. Tent pegging satan on the daily. Miss Karen too. The true Jael’s of our day. We need to hold them up in prayer.
Just comes to mind — their pens are actually a tent peg entwined with the Spirit stabbed through satan’s skull @ Karen Swallow Prior @ Beth Moore
Thank you so much for sharing. 🤍
Much love to you
Thanks for such encouraging words. We need so many of them these days! 🩵
I do. Wow. I do. Thank you.
My feelings regarding the subject of this essay are very complicated, and I doubt I can quite capture what I want to say. I don't think what I feel is anger, but anger adjacent. The world is filled with people like that kinky couple in Florida who presume to dictate moral standards and political leadership while engaging in threesomes and in the instance of the husband, likely engaging in rape. In Indiana, a similarly moralistic group cited Hitler approvingly. My I-do-not-care-what-you-thinks cannot be more complete as directed towards these moralists. They just fully have nothing to say that I would consider worth hearing. They have lost me COMPLETELY.
On my own journey, this really accelerated when, as governor of Indiana, Mike Pence refused to pardon a friend who had been wrongfully convicted of robbery resulting in serious injury.
The world really is filled with people like that couple. That’s a reality I am less and less able to deny.
I’m sorry about your friend.
I should mention that my friend was pardoned by Pence's successor to the IN governorship. For his part, Pence should read James 5, about knowing what is right to do and not doing it.
I have been praying for some time that God will show me how to feel rightfully angry about injustice without becoming an angry or bitter person. I don’t want my existence defined by anger. There are far too many people like that in the world. But I think this is something the Lord has to accomplish. I can’t will myself into it. Righteous anger can veer so quickly into either unrighteous anger or apathy, both equal vices. Finding that balance is a Spirit thing. The best I can do is keep reminding myself of the true, the good, and the beautiful. I keep telling myself there will be a resurrection. God is breaking our world to remake it, and I look forward to seeing what he creates.
I am right here in this place with you, friend. Same. 🩵
You beautifully articulated this, Amy. I’ll be thinking about your thought — ´God is breaking our world to remake it, and I look forward to seeing what he creates.´ This is deeply profound.
And Amy, I’m a farmer — mostly cut flowers. I’ve been so angry — I can’t even say for sure it’s all been righteous anger but it is my hope. Anyway, I grow flowers and homeschool my children which forces me to fight to see the good + beautiful and I think He uses that to ´save’ me (not theologically, but actually — Jesus is all I’m trusting in for actual salvation). After my Dad was tragically killed coming up three years ago, I needed something beautiful to dwell on, something to nurture and tend, and to have purpose — somehow to make the world more beautiful. It’s been healing, grounding and anchoring to the Holy Spirit through prayer in the fields. I’m not even sure this makes sense but in some way I have experienced it + know it to be true.
I’m not bitter. Just angry + sad + motivated to leave my mark of love + beauty on this world — it’s my way of leaving the world more beautiful (check out the children’s book, ´Miss Rumphius’ — it’s so beautiful + inspiring. My children (some are adults now) + I know much of it by heart + quote it often to each other) and of fighting the dark.
He is faithful. And in my experience, you don’t have to get it all right or perfect. He blesses genuine offering with a heartfelt posture of worship and love, and He multiples my fallible offering. He knows our hearts.
Much love to you 🤍
Amy is always an encouragement to me with her sharp mind and shepherd’s heart.
And Molly, I’m so heartened to know you exist--that you have found and live out the truth that there is beauty in this world and it is a balm and a source of life. God didn’t have to make this world beautiful (or maybe he did, being himself?). Beauty has a purpose and just being what it is it has so much to give us. I love that you farm flowers. One of my dearest friends who lives here where I live does too. 💐
Careful! You tell people I have a shepherd’s heart, they’ll be coming after my lady brain!
🤣🤓
Well, they’ll have to get around a whole circle of us. And I gotta tell you, Karen is FIERCE. I won’t tell you what my superpower is but we have your back.
😉😆♥️💫
🩵🩵🩵
Empathy is actually a superpower. Few know this.
Insert genuine happy tears.
((Thanks Karen))
If you ever come to Canada, let’s sit in the flowers together.
Xx
Thank you so much for sharing from your experience! I echo your thoughts wholeheartedly. Good applications.
I've seen similar things on a more minor scale (if you can call it that) at a different church I used to attend. I'm not sure how it was ultimately handled, but I think the church leadership cared too much about "not rocking the boat" and the reputations of their friends, over the adolescents of the church.
It’s so much the “way of the world,” and it really is hard to fight that and truly find (and follow) the way of Jesus.
It was a truly horrific time for me during my last few years there, but it taught me so much and God brought me so far. Someday soon I’ll write about it.
I’m so sorry. When it is time to write about it, you will know.
Thank-you Dr. Prior. I started to do it, and if anything, I think it's putting me on the path to full forgivness and letting it go, both things I struggle with.
I’m grateful for the pause that allows us all to ponder the battle we are in. God does not want us to be ignorant or unprepared. Your writing and transparency remind me that we aren’t in this battle alone. As I get older and see more that disappoints and angers me, I needed the reminder of the fine line between naïveté and cynicism. As always, thank you for sharing.
Thank you, Mitzi. It is a mercy to know we are it alone and that hard as it is, God is revealing what needs to be revealed. Thanks for being here!
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Your words are so powerful. Your book has been so helpful for me too. I am praying for your continued healing. Thank you for continuing to wrestle and share what you are learning.
Thank you for this kind encouragement.
Batter my heart...
...Three-Personed God ...
...for you, / As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;