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Kim Davis – The Outcome
Her courageous stand against the recent Supreme Court decision on marriage, which could have represented the beginning of a real movement toward godly government, has been downgraded to a stand for religious liberty.
Mr. Huckabee (who should have known better), instead of directing the focus of attention on the ungodly decision to its source and escalating it to the next level, settled for a public display. The godless marriages will continue but, hopefully, the county clerks of Kentucky will not have their names written on the licenses. This sends a signal to the Court and the entire godless government in Washington DC, that Christians are willing to go along with totally godless laws that openly contradict their faith as long as they can pretend that they are personally unaffected by them. And pretense is all that it is; these godless laws affect us all, especially our children. Shame on us for allowing them to continue!
Religious liberty, while important is insufficient. As long as Christians keep settling for less than godly laws, the Christian faith will continue to be squeezed out of the mainstream. Looking at what has happened to our laws and the culture in general, it’s hard to believe that Christians are still in the majority in America. We see from their response to the Kim Davis incarceration that the people are fed up with this and are looking for change. Sadly, though, their leaders (the pastors in the churches and notable figures such as Mr. Huckabee) continue to fail them. How long will it be (and how bad must it get) before we rise up, replace these pathetic leaders and take our country back?
Worlds Apart
Christians are called to separate themselves from unbelievers.
14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. (2 Cor. 6:14-18)
The reason God gives for this radical separation is that Christians are fundamentally different from unbelievers and have so little in common with them that they must not be “yoked together.” He says, it is unnatural for believers to have fellowship, communion, concord or agreement with unbelievers. He tells them that they are “the temple of the living God” that He will dwell and walk in. They must separate themselves from every form of evil so they can train to become His sons and daughters.
God, speaking to the Serpent immediately after the Fall, said:
“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15).
We know that this is a reference to Christ’s defeat of Satan at the Cross but there is more; two seeds are mentioned. The “Serpents Seed” can only be those that believe Satan’s lie, all unbelievers. The Woman’s Seed is Christ but it also includes all that are in Christ, all believers. Christ’s defeat of Satan was through the creation of a Seed that was no longer under Satan’s dominion and would eventually displace Satan’s Seed. God separates these two major divisions of mankind by placing enmity between them. Believers and unbelievers are to be enemies!
What does all this mean? Are Christians to have nothing whatever to do with unbelievers? No, we are told that that would necessitate leaving the world (1 Cor. 5:10). Also, when in a marriage one person becomes a Christian, he or she should remain with the unbelieving spouse (1 Cor. 7:12-13). In addition, Christians are required to teach the nations (Matt. 28:18-20); this certainly necessitates some sort of contact.
What is forbidden are any relationships or entanglements that impede development and could lead to compromise, i.e. marriage, business partnerships, close friendships and other binding associations. Christians are called to a highly exalted status; they are to be sons and daughters, members of God’s royal family. They are destined to rule and need to develop the skills needed to do so justly. They have the Holy Spirit who leads them to God’s word but are still very immature and are burdened with old habits that need to be discarded. As God’s children, they must learn to live in accordance with the standards of the royal family. This they cannot do if they continue to play in the streets with the common children. These, though, are not cast aside and forsaken; Christianity is not a closed club; all are called to join; but there is a cost, it’s a major life-change (Phil. 3:7-14).
There are a great many fundamental differences that separate Christians from unbelievers; they have eternal life so death is not a specter to fear; death is the beginning of a new and glorious existence that they can look forward to. Their purpose in this life is not to get as much out of it as they can while it lasts; it is a life of service in obedience to God. All this and more is what the Christians in this world need to learn to live for and this they cannot do without separating themselves from the world and its distractions.
This separation from the world goes even further. Christians cannot pledge allegiance to any nation;* they are members and citizens of the kingdom of God, the kingdom Christ instituted with His coming (Matt. 3:2, 4:17,10:7, 12:28, 16:28; Mark 1:15, 9:1; Luke 9:27, 10:9, 11:20). Their allegiance is to the Lord and they obey Him and Him only. Their obedience to the nation’s laws is only a contingent obedience. They obey only where Christ requires and disobey the nation rather than disobey God (Acts 5:29; Rom 13:1-6). They constitute a kingdom within kingdoms (or nations). More, they work to bring the cultures and the laws of the nations into conformity with God’s righteousness (Matt. 6:33). The goal is that, “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ” (Rev. 11:15).
The above is a picture of the mature Christian, one that has spent sufficient time in the study of Scripture and made much progress in sanctification. Most of today’s Christians are still babes in Christ; they need to separate themselves from the worldly connections that keep pulling them down so they can grow into the dynamic powerhouses for change that God designed them to be. They have much work to do; there is a broken world that needs mending.
Footnote:
* If the words “under God” in the U.S. pledge of allegiance are understood as a qualification of the powers of government, Christians may make this pledge in good conscience.
Some considerations:
- God placed enmity between believers and unbelievers (Gen. 3:15).
- Paul requires separation (2 Cor. 6:14-18).
- The Gospel message requires teaching (Matt. 28:18-20).
- How can we teach enemies that are separate from us?
- We treat them with kindness (love your enemies).
- We answer their questions.
- We explain our faith and why it makes us enemies.
- How do we protect our youth from their falsehoods?
- We sequester them in accordance with their lack of understanding and ability.
- We chaperone them when contact is unavoidable.
- We teach them the truth and explain the false.
THE CHRISTIAN DYNAMIC
Civilization prior to the time of Christ was very different from what it became afterward. The ancient pagan world was a world in which a single individual supported by a small upper class ruled over the great majority of the population. It was rule by man over man with little restraint on the ruler; the common man was reduced to little more than brute servitude.
Christianity introduced an entirely novel concept, Instead of allegiance to a king or an emperor; men were called to obey God, an entirely transcendent being, one that created the world and everything in it, one that was all-powerful and determined all outcomes. As this faith took hold and spread, rulers began to lose their power; they could no longer rule in an openly autocratic manner. The people viewed their rulers as God’s servants and more or less held them to God’s law. When rulers deviated from it, they felt resistance from below and found it more difficult to command obedience. For the first time in history the common man began to have a say in the employment of his labor. For the past two millennia, life in the Christian West was to an increasing degree in the hands of the people, more so where the faith was stronger and less so where it was weaker.
This transfer of ultimate authority from man to God, haphazard and almost trivial as it may seem, has truly transformed the world. The kind of free society the Western World and America in particular has enjoyed for hundreds of years did not exist in antiquity. It cannot be explained other than as a consequence of the widespread faith in God, obedience to His law and the recognition that Christ and not the Caesars of this world was to be obeyed as Lord and Lawgiver.
All this though, is now in the process of disintegration. The Christians of the Christian West have lost their way; rulers are no longer seen as servants of God. The typical Christian now believes that Christ’s lordship is restricted to heaven and man now rules on earth. As a consequence, both freedom and faith are fading and the world is moving back to its pre-Christian, Pagan past.
Observations:
- The faith was never more than a very small fraction of what it could and should have been. Both the numbers of believers and the depth of their understanding and faith never reached anything approaching a critical mass. It is truly amazing that this tiny tincture of Christianity could do what it did. When we consider how much Christians have accomplished in these two millennia and how very far from perfect and, in many ways, how sinful they were, it speaks volumes of what the Christian faith is capable of accomplishing; it boggles the mind to think of the vast potential inherent in the Christian faith.
- While man’s great enemy is sin, it is not sin in unbelievers but the sin in God’s chosen and regenerated people that is responsible for both today’s decline and also every past failure. Were Christians not so woefully ignorant of their responsibility for the culture at large, there would be no holding them back; they would be invincible and this world would soon be a Christian world. This power lies dormant, just waiting to be tapped by a faithful generation, one that clearly sees its responsibility and steps out in total faith.
- The question before us now is, how long will it be before the faith revives and Christianity once again begins to assert itself. There are many Christians in America today, many that declare their faith but their faith is not the faith of those earlier believers that effectively conquered the world. It is a weak and divided faith that places only a small portion of life under God and gives the greater part to the world. It may by God’s grace lead to life but it does not measure up to His standards and it is utterly impotent to change the world.
THY KINGDOM COME
After a lengthy discussion about our concerns for the basic necessities of life, Jesus said:
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33).
Jesus tells us here what our top priority in life should be. He is saying that the most important thing is the kingdom of God. Nothing, not even food or clothing, takes precedence over it.
God’s Kingdom
The first three petitions of the Lord’s Prayer give us insight into the nature of the kingdom of God:
9 … Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. (Matt. 6:9-10)
These words from our Lord show us that:
- God’s kingdom is where God’s name is hallowed and His will is done (His law is obeyed).
- We are to pray (and work for) a world that obeys God’s law (does His will).
Jesus after His resurrection gave us “The Great Commission:”
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt. 28:18-20)
Here we see God’s program for the building of His kingdom. God’s people are to teach the nations to obey His commandments (God’s law). How does a nation obey? A nation’s character is reflected in the nation’s general culture and its laws. It is these that Jesus tells us must be brought into conformity with God’s law. This is much more than a call for evangelism; Christians cannot leave the Great Commission to pastors and evangelists; they must actively work to further godliness in the culture wherever they are. This is how nations are taught to obey the Lord; it is every believer unashamedly defending and upholding God’s law in every situation, whether personal and local or political and national.
When Christians permit the laws they live under to deviate from God’s law, evangelism suffers and apostasy increases. America is now feeling the effects of the Christian abandonment of their God-given task to “teach the nations.” We have become an apostate nation. Every form of godlessness, including infanticide and sexual perversion, has been given legal status; all this while the Christian majority sat back, did nothing, and allowed unbelievers to guide the moral direction of the nation.
Obedience to Christ’s commission is not only work toward a far future Christian world; it is a matter of present survival. We neglect it to the detriment of our children and grandchildren. What kind of world will they inherit from us if we continue to ignore our Lord’s commands; and what excuse will we give when we see Him?
The Kingdom of God
The kingdom of God (or kingdom of heaven) is mentioned over a hundred times in the New Testament, primarily from the lips of our Lord in the gospels. It is clearly an important, although little understood, doctrine. Jesus places the kingdom of God at man’s highest priority, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness…” (Matt. 6:33). From this we see that the kingdom of God is not something remote and far away but something within reach, something that can be sought for and found.
The first three petitions of the Lord’s prayer are: “Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:9-10). Here we see first, that we should pray for God’s kingdom to come (to this world!) and second, that God’s kingdom is present where God’s will is done. God’s will is reflected in God’s law and His kingdom will have come when His law is obeyed.
Jesus, after His resurrection said:
…All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matt. 28:18-20)
Here He asserts His God-given power and directs His followers to teach all the nations of the world— His nations!—to obey all His commandments. And what are these commandments if they are not precisely the law of God? That law is already obeyed in heaven where God’s will is done and His “Great Commission” to His people is to make God’s law the law of the nations of the world.
So we see that the kingdom of God will have come in its fullness when the laws of the nations of the world are in full agreement with God’s law. And furthermore, this is what Christians should be seeking as the top priority in their lives, before even clothing, food and drink (Matt. 6:31-33). Seeking here is more than a treasure hunt; clothing, food and drink are not things we just find. We must work for our sustenance and we must work to advance God’s kingdom on earth.
How, though, do we go about seeking and working for the kingdom of God? Do we form revolutionary movements and attempt to take over the nations by force? No, Jesus told us to teach; we “teach the nations;” we don’t force them to obey. This is done through conversion, the making of disciples and also by example; we show the nations by our own actions how to obey God’s law. We do this by obeying God’s law in our own lives. And just what does that entail?
The immediate implication is that we obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). We emulate the early church that said Christ and not Caesar is Lord. They obeyed Caesar only to the extent that his laws did not contradict God’s law. Likewise, for us today, God’s law must override the laws of the state. This means that true Christians are fully citizens of the Kingdom of God and only provisionally citizens of the state. This is the beginning of the kingdom of God on earth. It is a kingdom that resides within the kingdoms of this world. Its law is God’s law; its citizens obey God and not men.
Christians teach the nations in many ways; among these are: a) by proclaiming that Christ is the rightful ruler of all the nations, b) through raising objections to godless laws and c) by setting an example of disobedience to laws that violate God’s law. They should be seen as a politically active and powerful force for change. This was very much the case in the early centuries and was still visible until the 20th century during which it almost totally died out.
The failure of today’s Christians to obey this injunction from the Lord is the central reason behind this nation’s current slide into open apostasy. It will continue until they repent of their disobedience, shut their ears to the false teachers that have led them astray, and begin to do the task the Lord assigned. They may plead ignorance but God does not accept that as an excuse. They should have studied His word and obeyed His commands, and should not have acquiesced to their false teachers (Ezek. 20:18-19). When they do so, we will see the beginning of the fulfillment of God’s promise: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever” (Rev. 11:15).
The Abolition Of Christianity?
America, once a strongly Christian nation, is now coming close to rejecting Christianity. Christians, still the majority in America, have surrendered the keys of the kingdom to unbelievers. The clear teachings of the Bible and the wishes of the great majority are openly ignored by America’s lawmakers, all without more than a whimper from most Christians. Why aren’t there millions of protests pouring into Washington every week? Where is the vitality that brought the Christian faith from twelve disciples to the world’s greatest religion?
Somehow, over the past several decades, the Christian faith has changed. Its previous optimism has become pessimism. It once believed that the Christian faith was God’s plan for the whole world and that all Christians were a part of it. Jesus’ command to teach the nations to obey Him (Matt. 28:18-20) was taken seriously. These words were dubbed “The Great Commission” which every serious Christian saw as his God-given duty to uphold and work toward.
These Christians were involved in cultural and political as well as family and church affairs. They did this in obedience to Christ but also out of compassion for the unbelievers that they saw as being in desperate need of His salvation. Christianity was never just about the saving of a few souls; it was the whole world Jesus came to save (John 3:17). They believed that Christ is the rightful ruler of the nations (Matt.28:18) and recognized the need to work to establish a Christian society in which every aspect of the national culture (including its laws!) was to reflect God’s love for His creatures. This was not subversion or revolution; it was God’s people working, within the existing law system, to bring about the salvation of America as a nation!
All this has been forsaken and we now have, right before our eyes, a vivid picture of what happens when we neglect the outside world and attempt to practice our faith privately. It rises up against us and demands, not just that we tolerate, but that we also accept and finally embrace its Godlessness. The end of this road is nothing less than The Abolition Of Christianity! We really cannot limit the Gospel; it’s either the whole world or nothing.
We Christians need to regain our faith in the faith and its eventual victory over unbelief. We need to reject the idea that Jesus gave us an impossible task. We need to face the sexual perverts, the baby killers, the pornographers and every other form of anti-Christian expression and defeat them at their own game. We need to speak up and demonstrate by our actions that America is still a Christian nation.
A Christian World!
Christians long ago gave up on the idea of ever achieving a Christian world. They decided that it could never be done and settled on just maintaining a Christian remnant that hopefully would survive to the end. We retired to our Christian citadels (churches, schools, homes, etc.), which we attempted to fortify against intrusion by unbelief and are just now beginning to see how impossible it is to do so. We have given up control of both civil government and the national culture to unbelievers and they have responded in exactly the way we should have expected of them.
They are, systematically, step by step removing every trace of God’s law from the nation’s laws. They have forced their godless moral standards into the schools, into every form of media, and into our very living rooms. The Christian faith has been marginalized in many respects. How long will it be before we see open hostility toward the faith and the faithful? When will we begin to see that we have taken a wrong turn and that we cannot settle for anything less than total victory? Christianity cannot survive as a remnant; the opposition will not permit it; it is all or nothing, live or die!
Jesus told us to convert the nations to the faith; all the nations are to be brought into complete obedience to Him (Matt, 28:18-20). He knew that halfway measures would be inadequate and would result in the tragic situation we have come to. He placed the future of the world in the hands of His people and waits patiently in heaven for us to obey. He will not interfere; He has given us this responsibility and will not do for us what He has commanded us to do. When will we come to our senses and see this truth? When will we repent, turn from our wicked silence, and begin to obey the One who died for us? A glorious future lies before us. Must we enter it with our heads hung down in shame because of our disobedience?
The Supreme Court Decision On Marriage
The reaction to the Court’s decision by much of the Christian leadership community has been pathetic, largely one of surprise, shock and dismay intermixed with pleas to avoid panic. What these leaders should have seen coming for years, comes to them as a great surprise. They now tell us to be calm but utterly fail to provide any real leadership. They tell us that all we need to do is pray and God will provide an answer. All we need to do is to keep doing what we’ve been doing and all will be well. In other words, don’t do anything rash such as looking for new leadership, leadership that might have an answer as to what action we might take. Don’t let this disaster upset our apple cart. We are all very comfortable in our current positions and, really, you need us and can’t do without us.
What, though, have these leaders done? They have told us that the only responsibility Christians have is related to their personal lives, their families, and the Christian circles they find themselves in. The only exception to this is to support churches, missionaries and evangelists. The rest of the world is to be left to itself to do as it wishes. Well that is precisely what it has done and continues to do. Christians have abandoned the world and left it to unbelievers who are diligently working to bring it into conformity with their godless way of life. The Supreme Court decision is merely one step in a process that is leading to a totally unbelieving world, a world without Christians and without God. You need to understand, it doesn’t stop here. Unbelief is anti-God and will not desist until the faith is entirely destroyed!
So what can we do? To begin with, we can obey God! He has given us His Word and we need to look there for our directions. Jesus said that we are to be salt and light. As salt, we are to preserve the good in the world and as light, we are to penetrate into the darkness of this current evil world. We are to shine the truth of God’s word into that darkness and illuminate it so that the lies of darkness are replaced with truth. This includes political action! Politics today is such a large segment of our culture that it cannot be ignored. We have permitted a tiny handful of homosexuals to effect legislation that is a serious threat to both family and church. If Christians are to obey their Lord in this, they need to become politically and culturally active. It isn’t just an option or a task to be left to a select few; every believer that is a true believer and desires to obey his Lord is called to this task. To disdain to do so is to disobey the Lord! Contrary to much popular belief, God will not do for us what He has commanded us to do.
America has been greatly blessed by God and there are many true believers in this country. If even a minority are awakened to this responsibility, we could see a very significant change for the better in short order. The goal, though, must not be merely a reversal of the Court’s decision; it must be the building of a Christian America, an America with a culture and laws that conform to our Lord’s commandments. This, of course, will take time but we can take comfort as we see the tide begin to reverse and in knowing that we are obeying our Lord.
Life, Salt and Light
Jesus, very early in His ministry on earth, told His followers that they were the salt of the earth and the light of the world (Matt. 5:13-16). Beyond saving belief, we have work to do! He cautioned against the tendency to avoid these responsibilities; the salt that loses its savor is worthless and light should not be hidden under a bushel. Over the following centuries, Christians have responded to these injunctions in three broad categories:
- The Saved – These are those that are content to rest in the assurance that they are the beneficiaries of eternal life. They conduct themselves in keeping with the principles of God’s word but ordinarily keep their faith to themselves. They go to church on Sunday but don’t have any significant influence on society. They represent the great majority of all Christians.
- The Salt – These are also careful to live the Christian life but go further. They take an interest in the national culture that lies beyond established Christian circles and resist attempts to move it away from existing Christian standards. Just as salt preserves food, they tend to preserve the good in society. This is important and necessary work but it is basically a defensive strategy, one that attempts to maintain the status quo but does not do much to advance the faith beyond its present boundaries.
- The Light – These work to bring the light of God’s word into the darkness, that is: into the surrounding culture. Salt preserves but light does more. It penetrates into and dispels the darkness, working to bring the culture and the laws of the nations into conformity with God’s law. This group is involved in education, the media, civil government, medicine, the sciences and every area of man’s activities. Their goal is to implement the Great Commission of Christ, to teach the nations to obey all His commandments (Matt. 28: 18-20). This task extends far beyond evangelism; it penetrates into every area of life and thought. Christianity is not just for Christians; Christ, the Creator of the world, is Lord and Master of all peoples and all nations. He came, not just to save a few and condemn the rest, but to save the entire world (John 3:17).
The root of just about every major problem in America and the world today is that there are so very few Christians in this third category. Their numbers have been diminishing more and more rapidly for at least two centuries. This has been largely due to a theological perspective developed in the 19th century. It promotes Christian passivism, limiting Christian activity in the world at large to evangelism. In a nutshell it can be reduced to: get as many saved as possible but don’t try to change the world; it belongs to Satan and will continue to get worse and worse until Jesus returns. This pernicious doctrine has permeated a great many of the churches that most true Christians attend; as a consequence, their lights have been, not just hid under a bushel basket but virtually extinguished.
The Christian influence that once dominated the Western World is at a low ebb and needs to be turned around while it is still possible to do so without great pain. I think that most Christians today would laugh at such a thought; they don’t realize that we are in a life or death struggle with unbelief. Because Christianity is what it is—an exclusive faith that denies all others, it cannot survive as one of many religions; the world must eventually become, either entirely Christian or entirely devoid of Christianity. Its light must either come to shine everywhere or be extinguished altogether (Gen. 3:15). We have lost much ground and find ourselves today at a critical juncture. Those of you that wish to obey your Lord need to respond to His call and let your lights shine into the dark places of today’s semi-pagan culture. This may not be a comfortable activity but it is greatly needed and will most certainly be rewarded by the King of kings and Lord of lords.
The Culture War
All of history has been a conflict between faith in God and faith in man. The Western World was once solidly Christian. There were struggles for power within both church and state and much theological controversy but prior to the 20th century there was little question in the minds of most people about God. God was the Sovereign Creator of the universe and everything in it. This life was followed by either heaven or hell and God judged man by his obedience to His law.
This began to change in the 19th century which saw a substantial shift in teaching, first in Europe and later America. New theologies that were pessimistic regarding future prospects for the growth of the faith were introduced and widely accepted by the churches. These theologies held that the Christian faith, and with it the church, would not grow to cover the earth as earlier Christians believed. The new views held that it would always be a remnant, a small body and would not dominate the culture until Christ returned and took control. The remainder of this age, they taught, would be a time of hardship and persecution for true believers.
By the middle of the 20th century, this belief thoroughly dominated the teaching in the great majority of the conservative churches, the churches that most true believers attended. As a consequence, in America the thrust of the Christian effort was reduced to evangelism. The general culture was viewed as outside the kingdom of Christ and the responsibility of Christians. Christianization of the world at large was deemed to be impossible, first of all because (according to these teachers) God’s word said so and secondly because the enemy (Satan and humanism) was too powerful. This left the entire culture: state, school, media, medicine, science, etc. in the hands of unbelievers.
Now in 21st century America, we see: a) our national culture sliding deeper and deeper into moral depravity, b) the number of young people affirming the Christian faith drastically declining and c) the depth of understanding of the faith itself, on the part of Christians, at a low ebb. J. C. Ryle a century or more ago said that Christianity in England is a wide lake but it is only inches deep. Today that lake is a dry and arid desert. Christianity in America is following that same track and needs to change soon if it is to avert coming to the same end.
Consider the course we are following:
- We have given up control of the state and allowed our opponents freedom to change the nation’s laws. These laws now support and encourage pornography, homosexuality, women’s liberation and every other form of anti-Christian activity. They disparage the family, Christian worship, the Bible, the Ten Commandments and many more pillars of the faith. The nation as a nation is steadily moving away from its Christian roots and into a modern form of paganism.
- We have relinquished all monitoring and regulation of the news and entertainment that comes into our living rooms. The networks now do their own assessment of what is news and what constitutes proper entertainment. They rate the shows PG, PG-14, R, etc. and the content at each level grows steadily more immoral year by year. Yes, they claim they have the popular support to do so and this is the case. Why? Because the Christian majority is silent! They have been taught and believe that God has abandoned the world to the Devil and that it’s off limits for them. All they can do is support the missionaries, tell people about Jesus and win as many to Christ as possible, before it’s too late.
- We have placed the education of children in the hands of unbelievers. Yes, our children, perhaps most of them, are in Christian or home schools. But are they really so isolated from children that attend the atheistic public schools? Are they so well grounded in the faith that they are able to resist the arguments of the atheists that teach in the universities? If so, why do so many students from Christian families deny the faith after one or two years at college?
Haven’t we done just about everything we possibly can to insure the eventual destruction of the Christian faith? Can’t we see that to ignore the culture and limit our efforts to evangelism is suicidal? How can history conclude from this anything other than that we were bent on suicide? How could we, as sincere Christians seeking to obey our God and do His will, have been so foolish?
The answer is that, instead of taking the time and effort to study and get a good grip on what the Bible teaches, we have taken the word of faithless or ignorant men (or women) that call themselves pastors. We that have been born again by the grace of God should feel an obligation to obey Him. How can we obey Him without a real understanding of what it is that He requires of us? He tells us to study to be approved of Him (2 Tim. 2:15). This is not just for full time pastors ordained by some agency. All the redeemed must, to the extent they are able, know the word and be able to judge and teach others. The men of Beria did this and, even though it was his teaching that was under scrutiny, they were approved by the Apostle Paul (Acts 17:11).
When we fail to obey God in this, we become the tools of charlatans of every stripe. Some are sincere but still lead in the wrong direction; others are simply wolves that are exploiting the flock for their own gain (Acts 20:29). All are, to one degree or another, instruments of Satan whose purpose is to destroy the Christian faith altogether. We have been lazy and disobedient; we have permitted these false teachers to become our masters and lead us astray. We need to repent, ask God’s forgiveness for our foolishness and get busy repairing the all the damage that has been done.
There is a huge army of Christians in America today; it is far greater in both numbers and weapons than its puny enemy; but it’s not engaged in the battle. It has surrendered most of the land to its far weaker opponent. It has retired to its church-citadels and is fighting a defensive war, a strategy that can never win. It is being led by officers that are either grossly incompetent or else in the pay of the enemy. This great army needs to wake up to the reality of the situation. It needs to stop following officers that are bent on losing the war and replace them with competent, victory-oriented leaders.
How, though, can this be done? Who is there to assume this enormous responsibility? The individual Christian tends to feel that it’s far too great a task for anyone to undertake. But it’s not too great a task for the Holy Spirit as He leads God’s people, the Body of Christ, through the intricate process of true reformation. Our responsibility is simply to yield ourselves to His will. To do this, we must first study to understand and then to get out and do what He has commanded us to do (John 3:17; Matt. 28: 18-20). We have a part in it; we are His tools; He has given us our marching orders and we need to obey. Until we do so, we will continue to experience failure. He will not do for us what He has commanded us to do!