Captain America: Civil War presents us with two opposing viewpoints. Just like the Civil War comic event did 10 years ago, we have an argument between Iron Man and Captain America. The disagreement centers around whether or not they are going to support the Sokovia Accords. Iron Man claims that there needs to be oversight over the activities of superheroes. Many world governments have signed the Accords and if the superheroes sign the document, they are agreeing to serve those governments. Captain America doesn’t want to submit to politicians.  He feels that superheroes will be able to serve the greater good if they are not bogged down by bureaucracy. However, the US Secretary of State makes it clear that any superhero that does not sign the Accords will have to retire from active duty.

I won’t go into the reasons at this time as to why I am in agreement with Iron Man (I will save that for a later post). For the sake of this post I want to focus on the fallout from the division that we see between the superheroes. They are divided into two teams – Team Iron Man and Team Captain America.  On Team Iron Man we have Iron Man, War Machine, Vision, Spider-Man, Black Widow, and Black Panther. On Team Cap we have Captain America, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Ant-Man, Scarlet Witch, and Hawkeye. The reason this story is so compelling is because it is easy to understand each point of view. Each side of the argument has valid points. This also makes it difficult to overcome their differences. Even after the fights have taken place in the film, Iron Man and Captain America are still convinced that their own ideas are correct.

A main villain in the film is Helmut Zemo. Even though the Sokovia Accords were not Zemo’s idea, he loves the fact that they are causing a division between the Avengers. He wants to continue that division and he takes it to the next level. Zemo takes the division from an ideological conflict and turns it into an emotional fight. This drives a wedge between Cap and Iron Man. It is hard to say if they will be able to fully recover from their battle. Zemo certainly hopes that they never recover. He wants the Avengers to fall apart. Zemo hates the Avengers.

I think there are applications to the life of the Christian Church from this movie. Think about the fact that Captain America and Iron Man are the two main leaders among the superheroes. People rally to support either Iron Man or Captain America. They certainly weren’t trying to cause divisions among the Avengers but that is exactly what happened. When they could have possibly worked things out, an enemy further divided them. At times we have disagreements and divisions among people. We understand why this happens. We all want to have our way. Sometimes there is nothing sinister about our reasoning. At other times our sinful nature can corrupt our way of thinking. Even in the church, we like to rally around earthly leaders.

 At times there is nothing wrong with liking one leader over another. However, there can be times when the church becomes divided in sinful ways. The devil wants the church to fall apart. He wants the family of God to be destroyed. He wants us to lose sight of what is truly important. We have to fight against sinful divisions. Think about what Paul says about divisions in the church in 1 Corinthians. “For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:3-9).

It is very important to keep these safety measures in mind before taking donssite.com generic levitra . Psychological counseling would be of great help. generika tadalafil 20mg donssite.com With the breakthrough GreenLight PVP Laser Procedure at Sagar Hospital, Bangalore men suffering cheap viagra from enlarged prostate in their 50s and above, will witness unparalleled clinical endpoints, immediate and dramatic relief of symptoms, no catheterization in many cases, very short outpatient procedure and short convalescence. It’s often difficult to find the bacteria in the body will multiply. cialis 5mg sale http://donssite.com/Riding-bicycle-on-beach-with-baby.htm Paul is reminding the Christians in Corinth that they are not to lose sight of what is truly important. Don’t focus too much on this pastor or that pastor. Rather, keep your focus on the gospel of Christ. In the Corinthian congregation there were people on Team Paul and people on Team Apollos. Do we ever have this happen at our congregations? Do we have people who either support Pastor A or Pastor B? We can see how this can become a problem. Divisions in the church could cause a split in a church or on a larger level in a synod. This could hurt many people and weaken the church. The devil wants to use these divisions to make the church fall apart. The devil is going to use any kind of division he can to destroy the unity of the church. He wants church leaders to fight among themselves. He wants church members to quarrel and bicker over issues.  Paul wants us to watch out for and avoid these kinds of divisions. Paul wants us to return to the message that gives us unity. Paul wants us to know that we need to keep the focus on the message of forgiveness through Jesus.

If both pastors in a church are teaching the truth of God’s Word, then there would really be no reason for a division in the church. Perhaps they have different personalities and viewpoints on issues not related to the gospel. That is fine. There is no need to create divisions simply because of those differences. The disagreement between Captain America and Iron Man is different than a disagreement or a division in the church of God. And yet, just like Paul said, the focus needs to remain on what is really important. I think Captain America and Iron Man would agree that they still want superheroes to do what is important. Cap and Iron Man want superheroes to help those who need help. In the church, we understand that the greatest help comes from the gospel which saves us from our sins. We work together to share that gospel with those who need it.

Captain America History

Captain America No More started a larger story arc back in Captain America issue #332. Captain America actually resigns when Government officials try to dictate what missions he should do. This event happened in the late 1980’s when Iron Man was fighting his Armor Wars. That is significant because the Armor Wars led to Cap and Iron Man fighting against each other because of their differing viewpoints. Eventually Steve Rogers took up the mantle of Captain America again. This story established some of the key ideologies that we see from Captain America in the Civil War movie.