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<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-align: center;"
align="center"><span
style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">Extremism:
A Hallmark of Christianity</span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-align: center;"
align="center"><span style="font-family: "Baskerville Old Face";">By
Randall A. Terry</span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><span
style=""> </span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">“Extremist!”
</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This
label
is nearly as bad as the Scarlet Letter in many American Christian
minds. Hostile unbelievers cast this insult like the first “without
sin” stone on anyone who dares to take an uncompromising stand on
issues. </span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
fear
of being condemned as an “extremist” has been so effective that
many tepid Christian leaders in pastorates, seminaries and ministry
leadership positions have joined Christianity’s enemies and launched
their own quiet, thoughtful, reasoned attack on “extremism.” </span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
practical
result of this is that battalions of young “Davids” sit
fidgeting on the sidelines, while the King Sauls of the Church explain
to the Davids why it is not God’s will to slay the Goliaths.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
However,
the charge of extremism - rather than an accusation to be
ashamed of - is actually an accolade to relish and revel in; because
without doubt Christianity is the ultimate extremist religion. No other
religion, no other faith, no other deity even comes close. I submit
that the war on extremism from inside or outside Christianity is
ultimately a war on Christianity itself.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Consider the extremes of Christ’s attributes and offices.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">He
is
the Lamb of God; he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the
Prince of Peace; He is the Man of War. A bruised reed He will not
break; He shatters the nations with a rod of iron. Jesus weeps; He has
eyes of fire. He does not lift up His voice; out of His mouth goes a
two edged sword. Christ is the Savior; Christ is the Judge.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
He
made Himself a servant; He is the Master and Lord of all. His
kingdom is not of this world; He is King of Kings and all kings will
bow at His feet. He wore a crown of thorns; He offers a crown of life.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
He is fully God; and He is fully man. Those extremes nearly tore the
Church apart.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
Reflect
on God the Father. God is love; God is a consuming fire. God is
light; God dwells in the thick darkness. Jacob He loves; Esau He hates.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Let
us
ponder how extreme the mandates and the fruit of Christianity are in
our lives and relationships. The Bible demands that we love our
enemies; the Psalmist boasts of his perfect hatred for God’s enemies.
Christ promised to leave his peace with us; yet he declared he did not
come to bring peace, but a sword. Christ brings unity to Gentile and
Jew; he divides a mother-in-law from her daughter-in-law. He commands
us to rejoice evermore; he adjures us to let our joy be turned to
sorrow and our laughter to weeping.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">God’s
dealings with men and nations are equally extreme.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">He
will
save the city for the sake of 10 righteous men; he destroys tens
of thousands for the sin of one man. One errant son loses Paradise by
one act; one obedient son redeems the world by one act. God forgives
the woman taken in adultery; he kills the man for steadying the Arc of
the Covenant with his hand. He sends blistering drought in Elijah’s
day; he drowns the world in Noah’s. He brought the first son of David
and Bathsheba to the grave; he brought their next son to the throne.
The angels rejoice when sinners are converted; converted sinners will
judge the angels.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Biblical
heroes are a study in extremes. </span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">David
is
the sweet Psalmist of Israel wedding poetry; David is the fierce
warrior who presents Goliath’s head to the king. Elijah stands and
conquers 400 prophets of Baal; he flees in terror at the word of one
woman. Abraham begs God for a son; then willingly offers him as a
sacrifice until God intervenes. Peter declares he will die for Jesus;
within hours he denies he even knows him. Timid Gideon begs God for a
sign; brave Gideon slays two kings on a stone. Saul of Tarsus kills
Christians; he is finally killed for being one.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
extremes
of Christianity may startle us; they may make some
comfortable; but they are not contradictions. The tightrope walker that
balances his acts with a long pole holds but one pole. It is the
extremes of that pole that keep them in balance. Should he favor one
side of the pole and lop off the other, he could not maintain his
balance–he would fall.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This
is
the plight of modern divines. Having accepted the false notion of
Christianity’s enemies that certain aspects of our God and faith are
extreme (and therefore extremely embarrassing), they have lopped off
the extremities that preserve them on precarious heights–and they have
fallen; fallen into the safety net of fallen man’s opinions. But this
safety net is actually a snare.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Having
turned
from the Harsh Master who reaps what he did not sow, they have
enslaved themselves to harsher masters who sow the wind and reap the
whirlwind.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Our
modern,
sophisticated, would-be “heroes of the faith” slay no tyrants,
conquer no kingdoms, risk no martyrdom. Instead, they get photos with
tyrants, protect the status quo of the kingdom, and frequently martyr
the reputations of their extremist brethren.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">By
trying
to blend the heat of God’s mercy and the coldness of his
judgment, the “balanced” have exchanged their glory for the similitude
of a lukewarm, politically correct ox, fit only to be spewed out of
Christianity’s mouth. By the forced blending of God’s unapproachable
light and the thick darkness in which he dwells, the moderates of
Christianity have created the drab-grey-God who neither inspires wonder
nor dread.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">They
have balance; the balance of a fixed, lifeless statue.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">One
achieves
healthy balance by remembering both the goodness and severity
of God; not by blending them into divine indifference. One maintains
balance by accepting the extremes of black-and-white; not by creating a
bland, grey divinity.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">What
Christianity’s detractors both inside and outside the church must
accept is that Christianity <i>is</i>
extreme – extreme to the wildest degree. Perhaps nothing reveals this
extremism more than the final state of man. The righteous live in
night-less light, the wicked are cast into outer darkness. The redeemed
dwell in perpetual joy; the rebels weep and gnash their teeth forever.
Those who die in friendship with Christ have eternal life; those who
die rejecting His grace have eternal damnation. It does not get any
more extreme than this.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Those
who reject extremes must inevitably reject Christ and Christianity.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">By
rejecting
the extremes of male and female, our seminaries have created
religious eunuchs and barren heralds; neuters that cannot reproduce
their kind. By castigating Christianity’s extremities, have castrated
its vitality.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Please
show
to us the “balanced” moderate who has done anything great in
history. They have won no great battles, they have no tragic defeats.
They have no boast, they have no denials. They offer no heads of
giants; their songs are trite and predictable.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">When
moderates
in the Church call for balance, they really want to lop off
the embarrassing extremes of Christ, His Church, and His history. But
by doing so, they make Christianity an embarrassment. It is no longer,
“These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also…”
but rather, “These men who want a place at the table have come to
discuss compromises.”</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Past
enemies
of the Gospel feared extremist Christians: “Now when they saw
the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned
and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that
they had been with Jesus.” Our modern leaders are learned, but not
bold. Now our enemies marvel that Christian leaders won’t fight for
Christianity; they take note that they have been with Balaam.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">These
new champions - pitiful eunuchs - inspire neither dread nor ecstasy,
neither joy nor weeping. They inspire <i>nothing</i>,
because only extremes inspire people. Mediocrity, gray, blandness…
inspires no one. They cannot advance and conquer for Christianity, for
they cannot even defend her. They are safe, and they are irrelevant or
worse yet; they are relevant only as religious hostages to be paraded
before enemies like trophies from a conquered kingdom. By the waters of
Babylon they have sung skillfully. Unlike the three Hebrew children,
they bow deeply.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Conquered
brothers,
captured sisters, be loosed of the chains of your safe, grey,
lukewarm, mediocrity. Cease giving succor to the enemy. Your war on
extremism is a war on Christianity itself, and you cannot win. Come,
battle demons with us. Relish the exhilaration of triumphs; curse the
hapless defeats. You can only achieve great victories by risking great
disasters.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Stop
trying
to give God a facelift; he doesn’t need your plastic surgery.
Stop trying to amputate the extremes of Christianity you find so
embarrassing.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">To
the
unbelieving rebels; behold the goodness and severity of God. If you
repent and believe the gospel, you will receive forgiveness and mercy
from the God who made you, and sent His Son to die for you. But if you
continue to rebel, and die outside of God’s friendship, you will be
judged. If you spurn His mercy, you will drink the terrifying cup of
His wrath forever. And your accusations of Christianity’s extremes will
taunt you for all eternity.</span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;"><span
style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Finally,
to
young and old believers alike - who yearn for militancy in the
Church Militant - take this advice: flee the guidance of these barren
doctors of divinity. Go to them for the Sacraments – yes – but do not
follow their lead into the ghetto of mediocrity. <i>They</i> <i>will
deliver you from extremes, but they will rob you of your strengths to
deliver</i>.
They will inoculate you from the pain and anguish of childbirth,
because they will sterilize you. Better to be in anguished labor for
Christ than to be a quiet gelding for Jesus.</span></span><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><br>
</span></span></p>
<p
style="background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: border; -moz-background-origin: padding; -moz-background-inline-policy: continuous; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span
style="font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Rejoice
in
the boundaries of extremism. Rejoice in the God of extremes. Find
your balance in the extremes of Christianity. Boldly declare: “I am an
extremist!” and then live out that extremism to the extreme.</span></span></p>
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<td style="margin: 0px; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px;"
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<div
style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><font
color="#ffffff" face="verdana,geneva" size="2"><strong>Randall Terry,
Box 23775, Washington, DC 20026</strong></font></div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
"Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it
tougher for sober people to own cars." - Unknown
</pre>
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