Michael Bigger

[Hasan alrabay @HasanEssam29636]

One of the most terrifying images in history: a transformation from life to death.

Gaza in 2023 and 2026!

[Bear @Beargirl_1]

My favorite James Baldwin line: "There is a reason, after all, that some people wish to colonize the moon, and others dance before it as an ancient friend."

[Diane Langberg, PhD @DianeLangberg]

Speaking truth is often considered a threat to the church. A mind-boggling reaction when God makes it very clear that the true church is to bring light *into* darkness. That means seeing what things really look like and calling them by their right name.

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

When you worship violence, someone calling for peace will sound like a sinner.

[Zach W. Lambert @ZachWLambert]

“The kind of religion that says you can treat people however you want as long as you have a personal relationship with Jesus is an abomination.

Scripture says you can't love God and hate other people.

You can't love God and abuse the immigrant.

You can't love God and bully the outcast.

You can't love God and oppress the poor.

We spend so much time looking for God out there, that we miss God in the person sitting right next to us.”

- James Talarico

[Daniel Steinmetz-Jenkins @daniel_dsj2110]

Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.” (1953)

[FireFighterDev @fire_starter457]

If your version of Christianity has you outraged by a halftime show in Spanish, but not the president threatening to wipe out an entire civilization… then I don’t think the guy you are following is Jesus.

[Dr. Michael F. Bird @mbird12]

When the church caesarizes the Messiah, it loses the gospel. When it messianizes Caesar, it gains a tyrant.

[Plague Poems @PlaguePoems]

I have read a statement
that “a whole civilization
will die tonight,
never to be brought back again,”
and as I read that statement
and as I reread that statement
I cannot shake the feeling
that the civilization
from which that statement comes
is one that is already dead.

[Adam Mockler @adammocklerr]

We started this war to stop a religious regime from threatening nukes… only to become the religious regime threatening nukes.

I’m sure this will work out well.

[Andrea Junker @Strandjunker]

Dear American citizens, whatever you wish more German citizens would have done in 1933, do that now.

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers.”

Not the warmongers.
Not the authoritarians.
Not those who see their religion as a battle against “the world.”

Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers.”

Wherever peace is chosen instead of violence, there are the children of God.

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

Every pastor who supports this president should have to read this from the pulpit to their congregation. This is the man Paula White compared to Jesus and said he’s the greatest champion of the Christian faith we’ve ever had in the White House. So read his words aloud.

[Nicki 🫧🪷 @nickimoraa]

Jesus wasn’t crucified by atheists. He was executed by religious leaders in league with the state to protect their power.

I hope this rings a bell this Good Friday.

[Brady Shearer @BradyShearer]

A church switched from giving branded mugs to first-time visitors to donating meals to a local rescue mission in their name.

Their connect card completion rate went from roughly 15% to almost 95% (@refugechurchlc on IG).

The gift changed from "here's our logo" to "we did something meaningful on your behalf." Turns out their community responded to generosity, rather than merchandise.

[Munther Isaac منذر اسحق @MuntherIsaac]

This Easter confronts us with a painful truth: many Christians have turned away from the way of the cross. Instead of following the crucified Christ, they align with the empire that crucified him—seeking power and influence.

[Joe Cooprider @joecooprider]

Reminder that Mueller indicted 26 Russians and 8 Americans for working together to interfere with the election. All 8 Americans were convicted in court, but 5 were pardoned by Trump.

[John Crowder ☩ @TheNewMystics]

Does God ordain the sword of the state? 🧵1/2

Romans 13 states:
"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.
Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed."

So how are we to take this? Is this like the medieval divine right of kings, where a ruler can essentially do anything because he is God's anointed man on the throne? Is Paul suggesting every leader is God’s vicar on earth?
Is Emperor Nero “appointed by God” to burn Christians like torches in his garden?
Is Andrew Jackson “appointed by God” to slaughter countless Native Americans on the Trail of Tears?
Is Adolph Hitler “appointed by God” to slaughter six million Jews?
Is Joseph Stalin “appointed by God” for the death of up to 23 to 100 million people?
Is Nancy Pelosi “appointed by God” to push for the slaughter of millions of unborn children?
Is the IRS “appointed by God” to bankrupt your business with unfair taxation?
If we look at this contextually with *all* of scripture, civil disobedience, understood properly, is allowed, even called for … but never to the point of taking up arms against the government. That’s the point. Paul recognizes the Jesus movement has political ramifications, but it is not in itself a political movement. We are a colony in this world, who operate by a system completely foreign to this world. Paul is, however, not concerned with an escape from society. He realizes we live planted firmly within it.
So how do we relate to it? Through love and honor. Following the rules we can. Paying taxes (even if taxation is theft). But we never obey the empire in such a servile way that we go against our conscience. And the previous chapter, Romans 12, is essentially Paul's riff on the Sermon on the Mount that says we do *not* retaliate, we live in this subversive upside-down kingdom of mercy and love.
Paul doesn't want us subverting empire directly through coercion or force, fighting fire with fire, but to live Christlike and self-sacrificially in the midst of it. But Paul himself was a catalyst of civil disobedience all the time, his whole ministry is causing riots and upheavals. Paul is killed by a Roman sword. He's not saying governments are just or godly - the very Roman Empire that murdered his Lord. Neither Paul nor John could ever have conceived of the church one day wielding the sword of empire.
Another thing about this chapter: God "orders" the statehood conceptually. This does not mean He "ordains" its bloodshed. In other words, He in no way "endorses" it, approves of it, agrees with it. Yes, God may sovereignly bring good despite the evil machinations of empire (good we can be thankful for), but this is different from thinking evil means produce good ends. 👇🏻

[Rev. Benjamin Cremer @Brcremer]

Dear Christian,

You don’t have to tell people what your religious beliefs are.

They see exactly what your religious beliefs are in the way you talk about women, immigrants, people of color, the poor, those with disabilities, victims of war, and your political opponents.

[John Crowder ☩ @TheNewMystics]

We project a God who kills people because we want to kill people. God made man in His image, and we’ve long attempted to return the favor. But Jesus refutes our darkened vision of God, subverts our shadowy scriptural images of wrath: the Logos Himself has come, displaying the only true nature of the Father as the one who comes “not to kill, steal and destroy” but that we may have life and life abundantly.