First, we justly condemn Ahab’s wickedness. God twice, in successive battles, gave Israel victory over Aram to prove HE ruled all nations. Israel proved so dominant in the second battle at Aphek that Ben-Hadad and his military escort “fled to the city and hid in an inner room” I Kings 20:30. In desperation, relying on false humility and Ahab’s stupidity, the conquered presented himself in sackcloth before the king’s representatives, calling himself Ahab’s servant and pleading for his life.
That honeyed hypocrisy immediately collapsed Ahab into sympathy. “Is he still alive?” he wondered. “He is my brother” I Kings 20:32. (We can often tell our spiritual nature and depth by what moves us to action. Ahab wouldn’t be motivated by God’s TOUGH word, but would by a pagan’s insincerity.) The king’s response proved him an ignoramus, not merciful. Ben-Hadad was Ahab’s mortal enemy, not his brother, as succeeding history proved I Kings 22:1-40. Ahab had no capacity to understand the depth of his fall into sin. But he demonstrated it by calling Ben-Hadad his brother and Elijah his enemy. Second, the king came close to committing the unpardonable sin. His wife embodied it. But do we understand that, despite our personal relationship with Christ, we can easily repeat Ahab’s sin, if not its depths? We can when we let personal feelings determine our reaction when seeing anti-Christian lifestyles in those we love. Indeed, what we plainly see is SIN in people we don’t KNOW, we consider MISTAKES in those we do. Then it’s Ahab all over again. “That person isn’t a sinner. He’s my child, my friend’s child, my husband, wife, etc., etc., etc.” That makes God’s word against sin true only when someone we don’t know or like commits it, but excusable when someone we love is guilty! Remember: obedience to God only begins when we don’t like or disagree with what he says, but OBEY it anyway because HE said it. AND…we stand with God only when we call a SIN in someone we love what we prefer to call a MISTAKE. Only then are we like God, who shows no favoritism Romans 2:11.
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This blog encourages the avoidance of three enemies of humanity. The first is irreligion, which ranges from secularism that ignores God, to skepticism that questions God, to atheism that denies God. Irreligion has built an educational system in America that develops bright minds capable of splitting the atom and building giant magnets, but So Spiritually Dense they lack basic morality. For when we merely educate unregenerate minds, we produce only educated, unregenerate individuals.
The second is false religion, which, in the best Greek style, multiplies gods and goddesses galore. Attributing to them every vice and variance in humanity, it builds a pantheon of competitive deceits, natures and alliances and mantles them as deities residing in high places. Though God warned us never to TRY to describe him, Satan has assured polytheistic devotees that it’s okay. Even to the point where the practices of heathenism is welcome in school districts and homes in the guise of exercise called YOGA, the child of eastern mysticism. The third is flawed religion, which ranges from Mosaic Judaism’s incompleteness to Roman, Greek and Orthodox Catholic Churches posing as Christianity. God intentionally designed Mosaic Judaism to prepare for, and to be in submission to Perfect, Final New Testament Christianity: Jesus in Matthew 5:17-20, Mark 2:1-12, John 2:12-22 and 19:30. In addition, Paul in Galatians 3:15-24, 4:1-5, 21-31 as examples. The Catholic churches represent the departure of theologians from the New Testament model to become monolithic religious bureaucracies corrupting Biblical teaching with anti-Christian doctrines. To say nothing of being the source of illiteracy, poverty and class-consciousness in the countries where they dominate. Led by a priest-driven bureaucracy, they create a bloated system as fully political as religious and show an unbelievable unconcern for the housing, education, economics and medical care of their people. President Biden has said he will appoint a special commission to study why poverty exists in Mexico on south. He doesn’t need to find sociologists from Harvard or Yale. But he will. He doesn’t need to seek Doctorates to write long treatises about economic theory. But he will. All he need do is look at the economic, educational, political and social structures of every Catholic-dominated country. But he won’t. All of the above-mentioned enemies of people create NOISE in humanity—confusion, broken and false promises, debates over responsibility and divisions that trouble hearts and minds. All of which the Prince of Peace resolves when people find his forgiveness and accept his Lordship. End Part XVIII Concluding thoughts from this series, continued.
First, Christians must be convinced that we are benefactors of society, with the answer to our culture’s depravity, however uncomfortable to human ego it is. And unbelievers are troublers of culture, however proud they may be of their intelligence and humanism. For they multiply the problems faced by refusing to accept personal sin, and by refusing to repent and bring it to Jesus for removal. Continued intellectual arrogance before God deepens our problem until God’s only response will be wrath on us all. While humble admission of our godlessness—understood as refusal to have God in our thinking and decisions—will elicit God’s mercy. Nehemiah 9 stresses that certainty. But recovery must begin with our submission to God as sinners needing Grace. Since it’s obvious that we’re unwilling to surrender our PRIDE to God’s MERCY, God’s wrath must come upon us nationally until we capitulate. Second, while Christians will never re-direct our priority from Jesus to anyone or anything else, we accept all the opposition God’s enemies want to hurl at us WITHOUT retaliating in kind. The reactions of Jews under Nehemiah and Jews under Christ illustrate. In Nehemiah 4:1-6 the expatriates wouldn’t militarily respond to Sanballat’s demagoguery over rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. But the Governor did ask God to reverse his insults and to plunder him as he threatened to plunder the Jews. In Acts 4:23-31 apostles John and Peter confronted an aroused Sanhedrin for healing a lame man, then preaching the Resurrection in Christ’s name. They had been seized the day before and jailed overnight. Maybe thinking that the stench of prison would remove the aroma of resurrection, they hailed them before the august assembly of religious aristocrats. And, as if they didn’t know, sought their authority for healing and preaching. Undeterred and unafraid by knowing the LORD they served, they bore a powerful witness the authorities wouldn’t accept but couldn’t deny. (Remember their sin against knowledge when studying the Jewish-Roman War that resulted in Jerusalem and the Temple being destroyed. There’s a sin of ignorance for which God will punish with few blows and a sin against knowledge that he will punish with many Luke 12:47-48.) The apostles ignored the human command not to preach again in Christ’s name by the Certainty that Jesus had empowered them to Preach, and they would DO SO! With a final threat of harm if they didn’t obey, the constituted authority sent them away. When Peter and John again stood in the presence of friends and loved ones, who would be endangered by proclaiming Christ, the apostles “reported all that the chief priests and elders said to them” verse 23. Understand…they reported it in full, nothing added, nothing subtracted—without even asking their opinion or reaction. Very apostolic-like. Very unlike many church councils today, which canvass the group for a wide-variety of opinions, out of which they hope to build “a consensus”. No…no opinions asked for or needed, God be praised. For, “when they heard this….” All those laymen, in company with all Twelve apostles, all in one voice…PRAYED (you read it in Acts 4:23-31). Then re-read verses 29-31. They disregarded the threat by considering it God’s responsibility, verse 29a, b, c, SO THEY COULD FOCUS ON THEIRS, verses 29d-30. They asked God to do more of the healing, signs and wonders eliciting leadership hatred AND…to empower them “to speak your word with great boldness.” Is it any wonder that God blessed them so much the building shook with the Holy Spirit filling the structure with his Presence to overflowing? And is it any wonder that they all left—lay and apostolic members—to speak “the word of God boldly?” With all the noise in society against Christians, what would a church do today under the same threat? Indeed, when we barely bud when criticized, how can we expect to bloom when threatened life and limb? End Part XVII The apostle Paul had an obligation “both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish” Romans 1:14. To his own religious heritage as a Jew. To the Roman empire as a citizen. To the unsaved world as a witness. And he repaid his debt by being “so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome” Romans 1:15.
Christians have similar obligations to our country. For our privileges as a free people. For the right to think for ourselves. For a living standard superior to any nation. We repay our debt the same way Paul repaid his. Carefully read II Timothy 4:1-8. Then, consider how that text speaks to our task as Christians in a society of deepening immorality. Notice: it’s a CHARGE:
With this information, how focused are we as Christians witnessing to our society? Indeed, how close are we TO, or how far FROM, Paul’s charge to young Timothy? End Part XVI The next Parts provide summary thoughts and applications from those preceding. The writer avoids repeating himself if possible but may do so when necessary.
A Russian Christian verbally defended Christ when hailed before a kangaroo communist court. No silent dissenter, she vocally used her very appearance there as a pulpit, asking why the leaders persecuted the very people who upheld the nation’s good. They prayed for the leaders. They loved their neighbors. They helped those in need. They modeled the righteous life God demanded of his people. It didn’t save her from a prison term. It did prove that in the absence of evidence against Christians the leaders upheld communist dogma against those guilty only of faith in Christ. Richard Wurmbrand, heroic Romanian Christian, wrote that the communist jailers were happy when beating Christians under their control. However, the Christians, like the apostles, Acts 5:41, rejoiced being “counted worthy” of being beaten. That way, Wurmbrand ruefully stated, both groups were happy. Ahab’s initial response when seeing Elijah after 3 ½ years re-kindled the animosity last felt for him. The king’s charge against Elijah strongly resembles America’s present spiritual warfare against Christians faithful to God’s word. The biblical ignorance of SO MANY Americans considers Christians enemies of the country because, in conformity with God’s word, we support marriage over living together, heterosexual over homosexual relationships and Christ’s Singularity as God’s Only Begotten Son and humanity’s ONLY Savior and Lord over religious diversity. In turn, all that unbelievers produce in “evidence” is their willingness to blame God for being God, because they want to be their own deity. They mock his Word, because they want to make their own rules. They ridicule a Single Savior sufficient to save ALL, EVERYWHERE, because they refuse to accept SIN as everyone’s COMMON problem. Ahab at least had enough religion left in him that he wore sackcloth—very un-king-like-apparel—when warned of doom awaiting him and his entire family I Kings 21:20-29. NO repentance is seen in society today. Only stubborn defiance in people to live as they please. It’s also the basis of the Inter-Faith Movement, which subconsciously creates the impression of “good in all religions” leading to “equality of all religions” so long as they offer help in time of need. But the leaders DO NOT want Christians intolerantly evangelizing those of different religious views. While they intolerantly tear the evangelistic heart from Christianity’s Founder. Though he came as SAVIOR to Sacrifice himself to SAVE all from their sin Matthew 28:18-20. As ONLY historical figure promised in prophecy as SAVIOR, Isaiah 53, and incarnating himself as JESUS—Savior—Matthew 1:20-21, Luke 1:31, 2:21, 26, 28-32, Mark 10:45, Luke 23:34, 24:45-49. All unbelievers, whatever their religion, including some who claim to be Christian, want Christ’s disciples to weaken his word and nature so those who don’t believe in him, and who have their religious faith, can feel comfortable. They have no fear of rejecting God, but tremble with anxiety when thinking of hurting the feelings of mortals like themselves. After all, those people are our friends, neighbors, work associates and family members. Thus, we have a politically-correct world because we have a nationally-depraved spiritual life by defying God. Christians…who love Jesus Christ first, most and always…take time to study, not simply read, God’s word. The Holy Spirit continually supercharges every passage with spiritual truth. And take time from the noise of life to “be still before God”, to:
President Jefferson honored Meriwether Lewis’ leadership of the Lewis and Clark Voyage of Discovery by appointing him Governor of Louisiana. The worst possible benefaction Jefferson could have bestowed! As leaders of a band of young men in the wilderness, America has had few peers and no superiors of Lewis and Clark. While Clark later had an exceptional career as Indian Agent of the Government, Lewis failed as Governor.
In the 28 months between May, 1804 and September, 1806, in concert with Clark, Lewis single-mindedly directed the expedition. Once appointed Governor the single-mindedness vanished under many distracting voices. The focused intensity of Explorer diverted itself into self-centered goals as Governor. Including spending Government money Jefferson would have honored but his successor James Madison wouldn’t. Including buying land on speculation in the new territory. (A fault of many early American leaders.) Including selling trade licenses to men which would profit himself. As Leader of the Voyage he remained focused. As Governor he scattered his attention. That has a spiritual application. The Church Growth single-focus Model mistakenly served a dual purpose. It first surfaced felt-human needs so it could eventually surface humanity’s real need. It was a matter of Duration, not Intention. It wanted to present the Gospel in a non-threatening way, eliminating any unnecessary obstacles to reaching people. Then, having made that concession, expected listeners to hear Gospel Truth. Because…leaders reasoned, those helped by God to be better people, with better marriages, better inter-personal relationships, etc., etc., etc., would be willing to listen to hard Gospel facts. That overlooked three important principles. First, it didn’t determine when reaching felt needs merited teaching real needs. Second, it neglected the human need of familiarity, as in what you win people WITH you win them TO. Having been won by hearing self-improvement homilies they wouldn’t care to hear self-denying sermons. Listening how kind, inoffensive, patient and non-judgmental God was, they have no desire to learn the true facts of Christ’s All Powerful Personality invading human life, shattering human egotism with his All-Encompassing Authority! They had heard indirect references to God in Christ for so long they refused to accept direct, God-given, Christ-honoring teaching that demanded obedience. Third, the problem of NOISE in the Church Growth Model. Too busy offering secondary factors to get people’s attention, they discounted the essential matters that got them converted. Like: awareness of sin that demanded repentance; forgiveness of sin that Jesus alone achieved; commitment to Jesus as God’s SOLE OFFER of forgiveness; new life after baptism that crucified bad habits and lifestyles; tithing as a debt paid to God, etc., etc., etc. Anticipating the Church-Growth Model, an elder in a church told me we should consider ourselves salesmen, selling the Gospel. Like good salesmen, tell only the good things about being a Christian. And, once the prospect is interested, quietly mention THE COST! I quietly, but firmly, replied that Christians are grace-givers, not salesmen, and that Jesus always put FIRST the condition of self-denial in following him. For he knew that without self-denial, people would go only as far as their interest level, but not ALL THE WAY to OBEDIENCE, whatever it meant. End Part XIV Now, quite unwittingly, the Church Growth Movement has fallen for Satan’s deceit. For their Model has been: meet human needs as the best way to teach them their real need. That merely rebirthed the old Adam complex: letting him decide what’s right, wrong and best. How dreadfully destructive the Model has been is most easily seen in the result: never before has America enjoyed such massively-large worshipping fellowships, and never before has America been as spiritually depraved as NOW!
What an interesting nexus: while the growth in mega- and meta-churches has never been as great, a corresponding moral decline in society has occurred. BECAUSE church leaders opted for a worship venue to reach the unsaved instead of the Gospel message that stressed Repentance. “And so John came, baptizing…and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” Mark 1:4. And, “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come’, he said. Repent and believe the good news’” Mark 1:15. John emphasized human repentance first because he preached the new kingdom based on a personal relationship with God, not a continuing priestly-led sacrificial system of animals. And Jesus preached repentance because he embodied the new kingdom as a personal relationship with sinners forgiven and living in his will. When church-growth advocates continued to stress felt human need, God’s word immediately became secondary to the preachers AND in the mind of the unsaved. Scripture merely offered convenient pegs on which preachers could hang points stressing self-improvement and better inter-personal relationships. However, their emphasis didn’t change God’s demand that his word must always be first in preaching. For that view emphasized evangelizing the lost, not entertaining them, as a means of gaining a positive reception. And it did withdraw God’s grace from society that won’t be restored until his people restore his word to prominence and his demand of repentance on sinners as our first approach. Stephen Ambrose noted that Lewis and Clark depleted some of the supplies needed in their Voyage of Discovery. But they still had a surplus of rifles, powder and ammunition on their return to St. Louis. Because, in the wilderness, the trio had life-saving powers. Undaunted Courage, 89 A lesson church leaders should learn. Improvement in society’s moral values will come only when church leaders stress that evangelizing the lost is the church’s most important task, followed by edifying in Christ’s discipleship those he saved by grace. Worship services can then be celebrations of the joy of the Lord while small group studies, using scripture passages, can be educational, which itself will be inspirational. It refreshes our memory that the church has two purposes. One is to evangelize the lost. Two is to edify (build in faith) those Christ has forgiven. By a false assumption, even well-intentioned Christians became troublers of our country, not benefactors. In the absence of God-centered thinking by Christians, satanically-inspired arrogance in the secular world promoted itself as humanity’s answer. Given enough time, education and MONEY, humanity can create what the men of Shinar desired—an edifice to humanity soaring high into the heavens on whose summit humans can build an altar to REASON, A.K.A., OURSELVES! All of this raises the question of revival in America. Will one occur before Jesus returns? Yes, but only after we suffer such tribulation that we lose confidence in what we presently have complete confidence: our intellectual ability to solve the problems now faced. We will repent and seek Christ when we have experienced sufficient sorrows, and our failures become so glaringly obvious that we turn again to the God who made us, to the Christ who forgives us, and to the Church embodying the Kingdom of God on earth—all those living in God’s will by faithfully serving Christ. It's time that churches emphasize evangelism by hiring Ministers of Evangelism. And they should use Biblical principles, not human-inspired methods, of evangelism which pew-sitters can use without memorizing passage or learning sales techniques to convince doubters. Indeed, Christians will start with the unsaved where Jesus started: Repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come. That very start will eliminate a lot of the noise Christians now use to hopefully influence the lost. End Part XIII |
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