To All of Christendom,
Two years ago we thought it cunning to declare 2020 a year of 20/20 vision. Yet that sense of clarity quickly dimensioned in the midst of Covid, war, political upheaval, economic uncertainty, disease, and famine. God in His divine mercy and eternal standing over all the universe was not surprised however by the disruption. His clarity bridged the abyss and His light outed darkness that covered the earth even today as evil seeks to persist. But this year we come with a message of hope, truth, and absolution.
Christ is King and has Dominion over all that neither nature nor man can take from Him.
This new year, let us humbly go before the Lord Jesus Christ in submission; desiring His fountain of everlasting life; His word that never fades; and His glory that shines ever bright. Two thousand and twenty-three will mark nearly two thousand years ago since Christ was crucified, since Christ resurrected from the dead, and Christ ascended to heaven leaving us with the Great Commission.
Christians await Christ return and final declaration over mankind. Therefore, this year must mark the time we look up and to one another in declaring, Thy Kingdom Come.
Christianity is far too divided and caught in scandal. Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and Protestantism have all been ransacked by turmoil. Only God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Ghost remain blameless. Indeed, only through Christ alone can we be found innocent and cleansed. By all standards of what is good, just, beautiful, and true we are commanded then to seek and call on Christ, for His Kingdom, not our own, to come and be made known to both the saved and the lost. Jesus, as a man, prayed to the Father, asking for His Kingdom to Come, Thy will be done. How much more then ought we pray these words since Christ is and was both man and divine? There are no excuses. Yet, one must wonder, as we pray for His kingdom to come, as we wait for the promise and hope that is going to be; how can we presently, in our faithful waiting, take action? There is an answer and scripture provides it.
Ambassadors to the King in a Hopeless World
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:
May grace and peace be multiplied to you.
That is the greeting of St. Peter to Christians in the Epistle of 1 Peter. Immediately, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Peter lays out doctrine. Trinitarian (Father, Spirit, Christ) and declarative of God’s sovereignty through His Prognosis (foreknowledge), Hagiasmos (Sanctification), and Hypakoe (Obedience). God in His eternal state knew everything that was and was going to be. Christ, though always having been in eternal existence, became flesh for the sake of the world and repudiation of sin. Christ transformed into the living Word and took on the Human estate to live out a life of perfect obedience to the Father by fulfilling the Law up to death and then by conquering both physical death and spiritual death (sin). And the Holy Spirit, also having always been in eternal existence, sanctifying believers for our good and God’s glory throughout history.
Like the altar’s of Leviticus, the blood of Christ is sprinkled (Rhantismos), literally spread out, in the ultimate act of redemption. And it is not just any blood (haîma) but the Atoning blood of Christ; a perfect sacrifice. Peter in a single paragraph formed the foundation of our faith; our purpose; and our meaning of existence.
Starting onward to verse 3,
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.
While this letter was set for a specific group at that time and place, we know sacred scripture lives on for the living, for all generations who put their hope in Christ. Peter continues the foundations of our faith through the Hope of the Resurrection, the Hope of Christ Return, and through the Testing of our Faith. We hold onto the Hope of Christ, not the passions of this world as 1 Peter attests.
Miraculously, we witness in scripture both the Spirit of Christ and the Physical, Incarnate Christ; our Lord coming to the prophets of the old in spirit and His physical, human form on earth. The Christ yet to suffer and the Christ who has suffered.
Taking heed of the Hope of Christ and the Revelations of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Peter then calls us to be sober minded as we grasp tightly to our rock of salvation.
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
There are multiple ways to parse sober-mindedness including not clouding our minds with filth or distraction; refuting drunkenness’ and disorder, and being right minded in character. A follower of Christ is called to Virtue, a seeker of Truth, Justice, Humility, and Goodwill. We are a people of higher standards but also obedient children not ignorant of their place. Christian, you are a sinner with nothing but fault. You are not above another in any human sense. Merely, we are saved sons and daughters called by the Lord to deliver the good news while aiding the sick, the poor, the hungry, the lost, and the forsaken.
A son and daughter of virtue need to no longer fall backwards to their “passions of former ignorance” but rather conduct their imperfect selves in Union with Christ by Imitating Christ and we can only imitate Christ if we are in Union with Christ. Hope, therefore, is our slogan, not the passions of this world.
Presently the world is consumed by passion. Enveloped by falsity, Modernity has taken God to War; war over His dominion by deceiving billions into believing a hyper-reality that cannot sustain itself. As banks and corporations make trillions of dollars and governments spend trillions more, the common go without and suffer. Indeed, suffering is part of our walk, yet we cannot ignore that as ambassadors, sin remains sin. Greed, gluttony, adultery, pride… they are the falsely proclaimed virtues of our decaying earth and must be called out.
Men and women are told they can be whatever they want as long as the ignore the truth of Christ and that pertains to false Christianity as well such as the Prosperity Gospel. You can be whatever gender you want to be, own as many houses and cars as you want to own, eat and drink however much as you desire, sleep and have sex however and with whomever you choose. The world is set aflame. People choose to live in a virtual world and live by their creeds and their secular, pagan confessions rather than aid the traveler on the side of the road. On the outside they appear as white as snow but inwardly they are dead; walking crypts that lack light and life. Pedophiles run our nations while good men are forced to succumb their families to deception and depravity. Demons roam this earth at present.
Late Modernity is the city of ruin. We are the Last Man. And presently this is the End of History. There are two choices for the world, repent and turn from sin or continue towards the lake of fire. There is no in-between.
Alas, there remains a celestial city and we are still called to reflect that hope on earth til Christ return; to be Kingdom Builders. Peter directs the Church to this very fact in the Epistle of 1 Peter.
The Architecture of the Church
But it is not only man's intellect which must be perfected with regard to his supernatural end (the Virtue that covers Faith), his will also must tend to that end, as a good possible of attainment. Now the virtue, by which the will is so perfected, is the theological virtue of hope. It is commonly defined as a Divinely infused virtue, by which we trust, with an unshaken confidence grounded on the Divine assistance, to attain life everlasting. - Augustine of Hippo
It is recorded that St. John Calvin holds to this Virtue of Hope as well, quote:
The Augustinian telos of union with God in the next life is repeated throughout Calvin’s mature theological works, both in the Institutes of the Christian Religion and biblical commentaries. Like Augustine, Calvin holds that through the virtue of hope, the joy of this happiness is partially already a possession of believers, even though hope has reference to the “future life” and “happiness beyond the world (extra mundum)” (CTS Romans, 466–47 [CO 49:242 on Romans 12:12]). Yet, the joy from hope in this life is temporary and does not finally satisfy (Calvin 2006, 27 [CO 46:781]).
Virtue and praise, hope and life; saint and sinner, sufferer and servants these are the divine callings of the Church, the command of the faithful. Faithful, be the “sojourners and exiles” [who] “abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). The physical church and the body within it under the headship of Christ and through the leaders and the saints, are to be a reflective kingdom that counters the darkness. We are to be altogether, otherness, while living in the world.
Sustainers of the Virtue of Hope through the Light of Christ
We do so by being a Church that is confessional, creedal, and a refuge.
We do so by submission to authority (1 Peter 2:13-25). Submission does not mean succumb. Again, evil must be deflected. The unjust and immoral called to step down from power. Yet, we can also be helpful to leadership especially with those whom we disagree.
We do so by submitting to one another in the sacrament of marriage (1 Peter 3: 1-7).
We do so by suffering in the name of righteousness as 1 Peter states, “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil” (see 1 Peter 3:8-22 for full context).
We are to be sober minded and stewards of grace to the world and to one another (fellow Christians), a people who delight in confession and forgiveness and mercy (1 Peter 4:1-11).
We are to be suffers for the sake and cause of Christ (1 Peter 4:12-19).
We are called to be sheep and shepherds within the Church, the Body. This never means blindness or ignorance, rather rooted respect and dignity to those upholding truth and goodness and the Gospel of Christ (1 Peter 5:1-11).
The Holy Churches of Christ are to be Kingdoms of light and hope to the world in dire need. Not institutions that look like your local movie theater or coffee bar or book club. Churches are to reflect the Holiness and Righteousness of our Lord.
A Call to Consciousness
Near the end of the Epistle, Peter wrote:
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen
Acting as the framework of Christian churches, 1 Peter, I am calling on Protestants; historically rooted protestants, to seek unity through forming a ecumenical council. To perform a sacred rite lost through the ages. To become not followers of Paul or Titus or Peter or John but unified under the banner of Christ. Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Anglican they matter not through a body that can ecumenically come together and iron out matters of great theological and social importance.
Additionally, I encourage the exploration of Christianity as a whole from the Church fathers onward. Catholicism, Coptic, and Orthodoxy share in the richness of our one true faith.
That said, I also encourage Catholics, Coptic’s, and Orthodox to look at us, Protestants, as not breakers of the Church but the People of the Word; a Word that has always been and was made flesh and written for all the ages. We are a people who seek Christ in both union and imitation.
So I leave you with this declaration for the Year of Our Lord Jesus Christ, 2023:
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
Through the Love and Grace of Christ as a Brother to Man,
Kyle Richey