One wonders how the Baby Boomers are reacting to Chinavirus, if they really are driving it as frantically as indicated by groceries dedicating their opening hours to BBs getting first pick of the restock. This article is part Boomer Bashing and part examination of their curiously apocalyptic pseudo-Christianity.
Wallace Henley started out as a journalist in the 1960s, then did 22 years in Congress and the Nixon Presidency, becoming a Christian partway through that, and is now the middle management senior associate pastor at Second Baptist Church in Houston. Sounds like a good pick to hear the Boomer perspective from.
Eyebrows thick at the outside but not inside signal a managerial mindset, as opposed to “visionary” mindset. He definitely looks like a Baby Boomer in that picture, especially with that head tilt.
Wait, if he’s a Boomer then shouldn’t he be much more geriatric than that?
Ahh, there we go. A screen shot from one of his youTube videos. SOMEBODY isn’t facing old age with grace and acceptance.
Perfect for today’s purposes.
The tipping point for churches: The strategic remnant (pt. 2)
https://www.christianpost.com/news/the-tipping-point-for-churches-the-strategic-remnant-pt-2.html
By Wallace Henley, 25 March 2020
Don’t sweat Part I.
When the accumulation of sin brings nations to the tipping point of judgment, who is there to stabilize them and bring them back from the precipice?
Your kids smothering you with a pillow? Because those sins didn’t accumulate on their own. Henley opens up with a plea for somebody to wash his sins away. This could have been a “come to Jesus” moment for him except Jesus’ price is repentance. Exactly which sins have brought America to the tipping point of judgment and who committed them?
That might have been the most-asked question in ancient Amorite society when it reached that critical fourth generation when its sins became “full” and caused God to remove His shielding hand. (Genesis 15:16)
Even though I rate myself as a theologian, that was such an obscure reference that I had to look it up. Context is God’s prediction of the Egyptian captivity. Gen. 15:16 “In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
One, there’s no mention of a “shielding hand” of God. That image is not in Scripture. Two, God didn’t remove His protection from the Amorites. He took personal credit for butchering them. Exodus 33:2 “I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”
If, as you say, Wally, your ‘nation’s’ sins have reached the tipping point then it’s too late to beg for mercy. The fourth generation from yours would be… Generation Z. Z for Zyklon. Sounds right.
Now, millions every morning scan their news feeds for some sign of deliverance from a ravaging virus and a collapsing global economic system. It seems to an apocalyptic moment has come upon us when the global order is shattering before our eyes. Civilizations appear to be disintegrating as described in Revelation 18.
Let’s see… for California thus far, this “ravaging virus” has killed… 11 people out of fifty million or so. Wally thinks the Rapture is at hand because of it? More Boomers than that have died by volunteering with “Habitats for Humanity”. Or is he thinking of the poor Communist Chinese? The downtrodden overseas that you’ll never meet are far more worthy of your concern than your State kidnapping your son’s children because he got angry at his feral wife!
The level of solipsism required to believe the End of Reality is upon us because Grandpa’s Generation is on the cusp of dying off is astonishing. I blame television. Everybody getting their perspective of the outside world fed to them by the same Big Three Commie networks did a lot to promote an in-group culture more powerful than the bonds of family.
Not that I’m looking to excuse the unrepentant. I just don’t want to see it happen again. Subsequent generations… X, Millennial, Z… are indeed splitting into distinct halves, defined by acceptance or rejection of the mainstream Narrative. Which is still a single-sourced document despite having many mouthpieces.
The haunting question underlying all our anxieties is this: What lies beyond the tipping point?
Instead of big-butt useless churches like yours, Wally, we’ll have real-deal Christians showing the world by personal example what it means to follow Christ the True. Probably by dying in the Coliseum for its entertainment and risking plague to defend the innocent.
Genesis and Isaiah give the answer — tohu (formless chaos) and bohu (desolate emptiness). (Genesis 1:1-2) Apollyon — the destroyer — aims to weaken the nations, shake kingdoms, make the world a wilderness, overthrow its cities, and entrap people in dark addictions, suffocating sins, terror and hopelessness. (Isaiah 14:12-23)
That sounds EXACTLY like what you Boomers did to the entire world. Or if you prefer, you Boo-hoo Troopers? …nah, forget it. The Left still can’t meme.
When Sodom and Gomorrah came finally to the tipping point, God gave Abraham a key that could have also saved the Amorites in their day, and us in ours. “Lord… suppose there are only ten righteous people there,” asked Abraham. “Then I will not destroy it for the sake of ten,” God replied. (Genesis 18:32 NLT)
Suddenly we are face-to-face with the answer. When our nations are at the tipping point there is a strategic remnant that has the authority to pull whole societies back from the precipice and release the blessings of God upon suffering people.
Okay, enough Boomer Bashing. Time for serious theology. Jesus is New Testament, not Old Testament. “God punishing the nations” is Old Testament. New Testament is every man standing before God individually. No more tribe, no more corporate identity.
Corporate identity being the Baby Boomers’ central fault, they naturally gravitate to an Old Testament understanding of God. But they do that in defiance of Christ, not in acceptance.
God toys with nations as He wishes. Some He elevates, some He tears down and rarely because they deserve it. The idea that God stands by to smite the peasants if the barons choose to disobey Him is completely unChristian. That’s the concept of “whipping boy” and it’s pure arrogance for Wally to demand salvation for himself by the efforts of third parties.
The innocent and righteous suffer because of how our (Boomer) leaders maltreat us, not because God is punishing us for “the nation’s” crimes. Thus, Wally can stuff the point of his tipping up his wrinkly, diapered ass.
By the way, God debating with Abraham over Sodom’s fate? That wasn’t God sparing the wicked because they had ten hostages. That was God rubbing in how depraved San Francisco was. Sodom, I mean.
God to Abraham: “Okay, fine, if there’s just one single righteous man in the city then I’ll spare them all.”
Abraham: “Thanks, God! That’ll be enough.”
God to Lot: “Flee the city and don’t look back.”
The strategic remnant principle is found in every historic season revealed in the Bible. Noah was a remnant man in his age, one we should study intensely. In Noah’s time God stopped the frenetic dash to the tipping point through the Flood. There is a sense in which we are again under a global deluge.
Jesus said that a time would come “as it was in the days of Noah” when the people “did not understand until the flood came and took them all away…” (Matthew 24:39). We seem to be in such a moment when the flood is upon us, and suddenly has taken much away.
That was a tipping point? God regretting He ever made humanity and drowning us all like rats? Something He promised not to do a second time?
The Lord said there would be “many tribulations” mounting to a great tribulation before His return to restore the world to its original mint condition, and establish the manifest rule of His kingdom of righteousness, peace, and Spirit-given joy in the earth. (Romans 14:17)
Original mint condition? God’s depiction of His remaking the Earth was the first literary description of atom-smashing. “The elements will burn in fire.” This current reality is the diaper of our spiritual infancy. It will not be renewed because it will not be needed, and humanity’s crusty old turds like “Stairway to Heaven” will not be remembered.
We are certainly living in one of the “many tribulations” periods. Jesus also gave a vital promise to nations living in such a time. Speaking of the ultimate tribulation, the Lord says that “unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” (Matthew 24:22)
It doesn’t count as a “tribulation” unless you end up skipping a meal. *GunnerQ looks at groceries with their Boomers-only hours* Yeah, no. We working stiffs who lost our work in order to guarantee you an ICU bed should you get a sore throat? That’s more what a tribulation is.
Does Wally think his generation is “the elect” of the End Times? What God was saying in that verse is that absent Christ’s return, humanity will exterminate itself down to the last human being. He was not saying that there was a special group of humans deserving of His protection.
Jesus gave the “keys of the kingdom” to the church, not the White House, Whitehall, Kremlin, Beijing, or any other human institution of power. (Matthew 16:13-20)
You arrogant piece of pastor shit. Did you not notice that your wooden box is itself a human institution of power?
But what is the real church?
The frivorced husbands. The women staying loyal to their men against all whispers. The children who refuse to grow bitter and feral after the devil rips their family apart. The unwanted men keeping society running, the wives despised for being happy at home. The people who instead of demanding Sky God make their problems go away, endure unjust suffering because that’s the example Christ set.
The real Church is the people you forgot about, Pastor Wally.
The authentic church is Jesus-centered (carrying on His incarnational ministry in the world), Spirit-energized (producing the fruit of God rather than human imitations), Word-anchored (not tossed about by every “wind of doctrine”) and Kingdom-envisioning (not focused merely on its narrow interests and preferences).
Wally’s “authentic church” is a State-compliant NGO with authentic mission statements shat by authentic boards of directors. Meanwhile, real churches order women to cover their heads and obey their husbands without qualification.
Such churches are made up of remnant people. Jesus Himself, in His great prayer for His disciples in John 17, indirectly reveals their characteristics:
Jesus has manifested the name of the Father to remnant men and women so they don’t know Him merely in a generic sense, but in personal relationship
Christianity is personal only in the sense of personal salvation, which puts the lie to “sins of the nations”. We could go Charismatic at this point but instead, notice Pastor Wally isn’t Charismatic. He’s just babbling about “Real Christians” versus mere Bible-thumpers with their Bible hangups.
Not an attitude one would historically expect from a Baptist church; however, a clear distinction has grown between “do what the Bible says” Christians versus the “personal relationship” Christians.
They are people to whom He entrusts the Word that the Father entrusted to Him
Credentialed clergy.
Remnant people are hated by the world because of their identification with Christ and His message
Piece of shit Senior Associate Pastor Henley doesn’t notice how much the world DOESN’T hate him. How many campuses does Second Baptist have? Six? Heavily persecuted, they are! He’s not even banned off youTube!
Remnant individuals are not “of” this world in the sense of their identification, nor do they belong to the world system that wants their allegiance
Remember that the next time you make use of Boomer Hours at the grocery, Wally. Also, remember that donations to your church are tax-deductible.
The remnant is not taken out of the world because the world is the place for their ministry. They are, however, pulled out of the “lump” that is the world to undergo transformation so they can be put back into the world to be catalysts of Christ’s transforming work.
No. Christianity is not something Christians do to not-Christians. It’s not even something Christ does to Christians. He wants us to become a certain type of person. That’s why “Christian” means “Christ-like”. Many of us are not in any position to “redeem the lost” or make disciples of Ethiopians or whatever the dreck du jour is. What, did Christ leave us here to suffer because His plans will fail without us?
Remnant men and women are commissioned by Christ to work under His authority in making disciples, baptizing people, and teaching them everything Christ teaches them, as they are going into the world
Credentialed clergy again. Wally, how many laymen perform baptisms at your Second Best Baptist? I’ll guess zero. How many laymen are allowed to teach in your church? I’ll guess zero. And if you attended seminary yourself then stop running your mouth about making disciples.
*checks* He’s worse than a seminary student. Wally is a seminary founder per this article! “He is the founder of Belhaven University’s Master of Ministry Leadership Degree”. Memo to all prospective students, you can’t learn leadership of men from a college class any more than you can learn animal handling from National Geographic. Go manage a Burger King instead. Seriously!
Note carefully that while God created a professional clergy in the Old Testament, He did NOT in the New Testament. The example Christ set was apprenticeship, not institutionalization. Note also that the Levites were a complete failure as a loyal priesthood leading the nation to God.
Therefore, remnant people are set apart, dedicated for the continuation of the ministry of Jesus wherever they go in the world. So, as in the days of Noah there is a strategic remnant… with the authority (keys of the Kingdom) to yank us back from the edge.
Noah didn’t yank anybody back from the edge. God hated the wicked and killed them off. The Christian concept of “remnant” is simply the believers who survive the devil’s various pogroms. Often not without being badly affected by it, either. The first thing Noah did when he got off the Ark was plant a vineyard in order to get wasted drunk. Lot impregnated his daughters. And that prodigal son? The last word of that story was the patriarch reminding his loyal, eldest son that he would inherit everything… the prodigal would not.
Wally obviously flatters himself as the “strategic remnant” with this screeching about how everything is wrong with everybody else and God will protect the people exactly like him because he’s special.
God gave a reset, a system reboot, in Noah’s day. The worldwide Flood was a great instrument of redefinition. Our current global “flood” is also. God has allowed a sweeping planet-encompassing pause. The Lord of history will bring a new world, a new order out of the tohu-bohu…
Seriously, Pastor Wally? You end this article with a call for a New World Order? It is little wonder that apocalyptic “only God’s special chosen will survive unharmed” theology fascinates the insular, self-absorbed Boomers. Most of us legit Christians have enough trouble just treading water these days and not because the Boomer Remover is menacing every gas pump handle.
We have trouble because we ACTUALLY aren’t of this world. Meaning in part, that we aren’t among the fools looking up to Wally for salvation.
We have trouble because we believe good & evil exist and alter our behavior accordingly. In all of Pastor Wally’s rantings, he never brought up the concept of evil and God punishing the wicked. Just “God removing the shielding hand from the Amorites when their tipping point came”.
Those of us that God does consider special, He treats us cruelly. He send us through the Valley of Death because He believes we can make it through. He’s not here to win hearts and minds like the Bush Dynasty. God is here to see if we will still love Him when He costs us everything.
By contrast, the Amorites that Wally brought up went unpunished until the very end.
Most of all, we have trouble because the Baby Boomers hogging the reins of power don’t even think of their own descendants as human beings worthy of their concern. Will their successors be Squatemalan parasites, H1b Hindus or their own children? Meh, whichever. We’re all just the grease that keeps their stock investments up.
Screw your “strategic remnant”, Pastor Wally. Screw your “everybody jump into Noah’s Ark” delusions of escaping mortality and screw your New World Order. I would not want your escape even if the offer was real. We can take nothing from this world except our honor and our devotion; should we leave this mortal world untested?
The Beatles were not Boomers. Neither were Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Neither was Hugh Hefner.
I’m thinking that Boomers get a lot of blame that belongs to the previous generations who were there first to tear down the existing Christian civilization and replace it with the devil worshiping one we now all enjoy. The Boomers were the target of the psy-op called the Sixties, and consumers of it, not the designers and instigators.
Other than that, you’re exactly right.
You’re right, there’s plenty of blame to go around. Boomers being singularly unrepentant of their generation’s faults makes them an excellent target, however.
I think the problem with targeting a group like “Boomers” is that it is too vague and undefined for purpose. I’d prefer targeting “50’s generation conformity” and “60’s generation degeneracy” and “70’s generation narcisissm” and “80’s generation shallowness” and “90’s generation nihilism.”
The problem with complaining about “Boomers” is it allows too many people who are infinitely worse than the average “Boomer” to join in with the insults, and that doesn’t help things.
It’s not as bad as blaming the younger generations, though. There is no way that youngsters can be blamed for how they were raised. I insist on putting the blame on the wolves who raised them. Which happens to be my point about “Boomers.”
ravaging virus and a collapsing global economic system
I am willing to be careful when interacting with a person who has recently traveled. But you are correct to mock this supposed “ravaging virus”. The normal flu kills more people.
And the economic problems are self-inflicted by our leaders, media and the foolish people who believe the hype.
Maybe Trump should not have stopped with merely labeling them “Fake News”. Maybe he should have passed laws requiring news stations to give full reports, instead of slanted, technically-true but massively incomplete reports, or be publicly whipped on their own next broadcast. I would tune in for that! Good way to increase the ratings.
Yes, this kind of law would be getting close to state-owned media. But I fail to see how having private media without any responsibility to give the full truth, is much better.
Media should not be allowed to hide behind just reporting what their favoured pundit says. Truthfully reporting that Johnny says the Chinese virus will kill everyone is not enough. They should be forced to countering/balancing facts.
Instead of: 11 people died!
Say: 11 people died, which is less than one hundredth of one percent. And all of those people previously had compromised health due to already being sick or very elderly. And over 99% of previously-healthy people who get infected, who are below the age of 60, recover without any required treatment whatsoever.
Meanwhile, real churches order women to cover their heads and obey their husbands without qualification.
Good luck in your search! Orthodox churches require the first; not sure about the obedience part.
Boomer: So, as in the days of Noah there is a strategic remnant… with the authority (keys of the Kingdom) to yank us back from the edge.
GunnerQ’s response: Noah didn’t yank anybody back from the edge. God hated the wicked and killed them off.
This part was weird. The idea that we have the authority to force God to back off, or to change God’s mind, is pretty arrogant — or perhaps I am reading in too much to what he wrote. It is true that God did give mercy many times. Christ’s sacrifice. Moses’ plea for mercy for the Israelites.
But we do not force God to do anything.
More importantly, his example of Noah contradicts his claim. God did not spare the world, due to Noah. God delayed his judgement until his chosen servants, Noah and his sons plus their wives, could get out of the way. Same as with Lot. Then, in both cases, God wiped out the other people; the world in the first case and Sodom in the second.
So maybe Wallace is hoping that God will take him and his church-goers away to another place, so that God can level the US? Or level the entire world? That would make more sense. Although nothing in the Bible suggests God will proceed with world-leveling until the great tribulation.
“This part was weird. The idea that we have the authority to force God to back off, or to change God’s mind, is pretty arrogant — or perhaps I am reading in too much to what he wrote. ”
This belief is pervasive in Christianity, from Charismatics to Catholics to the alt-Right: the idea that God wants a certain kind of unified mortal world, is frustrated that He isn’t getting it and yet, is unwilling to act on His own behalf. It comes off as an unfalsifiable claim to legitimacy. Curious how Deus always Vults what the speaker already wanted.
I think “Deus Vults” the destruction of America because He’s sovereign and allowing it to happen. I don’t approve and resist as best I can, which is an attitude God probably both respects and denies.
Or in Wally’s case, the belief indicates a terror of losing his comfortable, arrogant life. His biography, from journalist to Nixon man to Churchian megachurch author-pastor, suggests a long life of fat and ease. One can only imagine his wails of eschatology has Congress allowed the stock market to tank instead of another TWO TRILLION DOLLAR BANKSTER BAILOUT!