REMEMBERING AMERICA
Memorial Day was originally established to remember all who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Unfortunately, we tend to soon forget those whose past sacrifice has made possible our present freedoms, as Carl Sandburg pointed out in a poem.
THE GRASS
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo.
Shovel them under and let me work—
I am the grass;
I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and the passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
As tragic as it is for us to forget those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our freedoms, it is even more tragic for us to forget the reason for which they fought and died, as another famous poem points out.
IN FLANDERS FIELDS
By: John McCrae
In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
I believe many who are meant to be remembered on this Memorial Day are turning over in their graves, due to the fact that we’ve dropped the torch passed to us from their dying hands and broken faith with them who gave their lives for us. As a result, the America they loved, fought and died for is no more. It is but a faint memory.
The America those we remember today fought and died for believed all men were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, one of which was the right to life.
However, in today’s America, more American lives are lost annually through legalized abortion than have died in our Armed Services in all the wars ever fought in all of American history.
The America those we remember today fought and died for was the world’s most prosperous and industrious nation.
However, in today’s America our national debt has become unpayable and the percentage of our population now on government dependency has become unsustainable.
If we eliminated the entire expense of our federal government, we would still not take in enough annual tax revenue to fund our government’s entitlement programs and to pay just the interest on our national debt.
The America those we remember today fought and died for was a nation ruled by law.
However, today’s America is a nation ruled by lawyers. All it takes to thwart the will of the American people and to undermine the United States Constitution in today’s America is one black robed judge armed with a gavel.
The America those we remember today fought and died for believed in freedom of religion and that the government had no right to pass any law that would interfere with the free exercise of one’s religious convictions.
However, in today’s America, Christian business owners are being forced to provide the morning after pill to female employees under the federal government’s new healthcare law, as well as to provide their services at same-sex wedding ceremonies, thanks to a recent rash of court rulings.
For instance, Christian photographers in New Mexico were recently found guilty of discrimination for refusing to take pictures at a same-sex wedding ceremony. When they appealed their conviction to the New Mexico Supreme Court, the state Supreme Court unanimously upheld the lower court’s verdict against them. In a concurring opinion to the majority opinion, New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Bosson wrote that the compromising of our Christian convictions is “the price” Christians must now pay for our “citizenship.”
The America those we remember today fought and died for had public servants.
However, today’s America has professional politicians. No longer are our elected officials guided by principle, but by political expediency. They are self-serving rather than public servants and do what is best for their careers, not what is best for their country or constituencies.
Modern-day politicians lie and make empty promises because no truth-telling politician refusing to make false promises has any hope of being elected to public office in today’s America. Our present-day “gimme gimme” electorate is only willing to vote for candidates promising to line the pockets of voters with the most cash from bankrupt public coffers.
The America those we remember today fought and died for had a Free Press that served as a watchdog for the American people.
However, in today’s America, the Free Press no longer serves as a watchdog for the people, but as a lapdog for the politicians.
Rather than informing the American people of political scandal and government corruption, today’s media often defends scandalous politicians and attempts to cover-up government corruption. As a result, the American people are not being informed, but indoctrinated, and our elected officials are not being held accountable, but enabled to arrogantly commit the most egregious acts with absolute impunity.
The America those we remember today fought and died for held to “self-evident” truths. Remember these words from our nation’s birth certificate, The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”?
However, today’s America does not hold to self-evident truths, but to relativism. It holds to the belief that all truth is relative and in a constant state of flux, changing from time to time and from person to person. Therefore, today’s America actually denies that there is such a thing as self-evident or absolute truths.
Any opposition to this absolute truth that there is no absolute truth or to the politically correct culture that it has spawned is immediately dismissed and condemned as intolerance.Consequently, there is no possibility of a course correction for the rudderless course our country is now sailing toward the rocky shoals of amorality, where nothing is right or wrong, with the lone exception of it being wrong to believe in right and wrong.
The America those we remember today fought and died for guarded its borders and enforced its immigration laws in order to protect its culture.
However, today’s America has sacrificed its culture—the American way of life—on the altar of multiculturalism. Consequently, our borders are overrun, our immigration laws are unenforced, and any attempt to preserve and protect our culture is readily condemned as racism.
The America those we remember today fought and died for was one nation under God; that is, a nation with a government founded upon its acknowledgment of God as the Arbiter of man’s inalienable rights. Again, remember the words of our nation’s birth certificate, The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.…”
However, today’s America is no longer a nation under God, but a nation whose government is forbidden by its own courts to acknowledge God, the very foundational principle upon which our American government was established.
As a result, our government is no longer protecting our God-given inalienable rights, which is the purpose for which it was established, but usurping the place of God and making itself into the arbiter of alienable rights that it grants or revokes at its own discretion.
The America those we remember today fought and died for was a God-fearing nation.
However, today’s America has become a godless nation that has not only turned its back on God, but passed a point of no return with God.
The state by state legalization of same-sex marriage now sweeping across our country —something I predicted would happen in my book: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: The Compelling Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage—serves as proof positive of our nation’s spiritual reprobation. According to the Bible, the acceptance and advocacy of homosexuality is a sure sign that God has given up on a people and given them over to a their reprobate minds (Romans 1:18-32).
In Psalm 137:1-4, the Jewish captives of the Babylonian Captivity are seen sitting in heartbroken silence. Although they are remembering their beloved country and its capital Jerusalem, neither existed any longer. Both had been destroyed by the Babylonians. Jerusalem was in ruins, its temple reduced to rubble, and they, the small remnant of Jewish survivors from the Babylonian conquest of Judah, were enslaved in a foreign land.
There, by the rivers of Babylon, they were requested by their captors to sing the famous songs of Zion. However, they refused, hanging their harps in the weeping willows and explaining to their captors that the songs of Zion could not be sung in a foreign land.
I believe we have much in common today with these Jewish captives of long ago. Like them, we are remembering our beloved country, which, like theirs, no longer exists. The America that we have known and loved is no more. It is but a faint memory growing ever-fainter with each passing day. Furthermore, all who believe that it can be brought back are under an illusion of immeasurable proportions.
Now, I am well aware that many will be quick to condemn me as unpatriotic for preaching a message like this on Memorial Day. However, speaking the truth to my countrymen makes me no more the enemy of America than speaking the truth to the Galatians made the Apostle Paul the enemy of the church in Galatia (Galatians 4:16). In fact, I can render no more valuable service to my country or countrymen than to speak the truth.
I’m also aware that many will be quick to condemn a message like this for failing to offer any hope to its recipients. However, a truth that often seems to elude the contemporary church in America is that our hope as Christians is not in this country, but in a far “better country,” a “heavenly” one “whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10, 16).
We should be careful not to misunderstand this truth as exempting us from following the biblical mandate to be exemplary and law-abiding citizens of our earthly country, as long as our earthly citizenship does not infringe upon our heavenly citizenship and the law of our land does not violate the higher law of our God. At the same time, we should understand that a misplaced hope in a future America rather than a sure hope in a forever Heaven is completely incompatible with the teachings of Christ, who said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).
Like the Jewish captives we read about in Psalm 137, we too are a remnant in a foreign land. First, we are a remnant.
Far from fulfilling its divinely ordained role as “light” and “salt”; that is, our country’s conscience and the preserver of our society, the contemporary church in America refuses to speak up for what is right and to stand up against what is wrong. Rather than calling sinners to repentance and transforming the culture, the contemporary church in America seeks to conform to the culture and to make itself compatible with sinners.
As a result, the church in America has “lost [its] savour”—the power of the Holy Spirit—and is being “cast out and…trodden under foot of men”—having less influence in and impact upon our society, as well as being increasingly looked over and looked down upon by our society.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, apostasy, which has been trickling into the contemporary church in America for some time, is now coming in like a flood. What used to be considered orthodox is now condemned as odious and what used to be condemned as apostasy is now accepted as appropriate in our politically correct culture and post-Christian world.
Truly, churches that are preaching an uncompromised Gospel are becoming rare in today’s America. Also, Christians willing to speak up for the truth and to take a stand against what is wrong are an ever-diminishing remnant.
Along with being a remnant, we are also like the Jewish captives in Psalm 137 in that we find ourselves today in a foreign land. Do you remember the words of Dorothy to her dog Toto in The Wizard of OZ, “I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore”? Well, I have a feeling we’re not in America anymore. Oh, we’re in a land masquerading as America, but a land that bears no resemblance to the America we have known and loved.
Still, on days like today we are called upon to sing our patriotic songs, just as the Jewish captives were called upon to sing the songs of Zion by the rivers of Babylon. But how can we sing God Bless America in today’s America, a country that has turned its back on God, turned its nose up at God, and is holding a clenched fist in the face of God?
Like the Jewish captives in Babylon, all we can do today is sit in heartbroken silence and remember our beloved country, which is no more. We too must hang our harps in the weeping willows for we cannot sing patriotic songs in this foreign land.
JARS OF CLAY ON SLIPPERY SLOPES
One of my mentors, Lynn Harnage, a man who possessed more spiritual insight and discernment than anyone I've ever known, used to infuriate younger Christians by calling Jars of Clay "Jugs of Mud." I found myself wondering if old Lynn wasn't on to something when I saw Jars of Clay perform at a Billy Graham crusade in Tampa, Florida. While they climbed the stage scaffolding a lady next to us did a pole dance for Jesus. Well, I've kept all of this under wraps for years, but never got it out of the back of my mind. Today, it's all come back to me. Dan Haseltine of Jars of Clay has come out in support of same-sex marriage in a series of tweets on Twitter. Here's some of what he tweeted:
“Not meaning to stir things up BUT… is there a non-speculative or non ‘slippery slope’ reason why gays shouldn’t marry? I don’t hear one.”
“I’m trying to make sense of the conservative argument. But it doesn’t hold up to basic scrutiny. Feels akin to women’s suffrage. I just don’t see a negative effect to allowing gay marriage. No societal breakdown, no war on traditional marriage. Anyone?”
“I don’t think Scripture ‘clearly’ states much of anything regarding morality.”
“I think the vast interpretation [of Scripture] has left room for people to deal inhumanly and unlovingly toward others that don’t fit their guidelines.”
“I don’t particularly care about Scriptures stance on what is ‘wrong… I care more about how it says we should treat people.”
Perhaps, Haseltine should get in touch with Elane Huguenin, a Christian photographer in Albuquerque, New Mexico who was sued for her refusal to photograph a lesbian couple’s same-sex wedding ceremony. He may also want to consider that the United States Supreme Court refused to hear her appeal of the New Mexico Supreme Court's unanimous guilty verdict. And, last but not least, he may also want to read the opinion of New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Bosson, who, while admitting Christians have a right to practice our faith in private, asserted that the compromising of our convictions in public is the price we must now pay for our citizenship. Haseltine might not see any slippery slope here, but I see a slope steeper and more slippery than any the church has ever faced in America.
What people like Haseltine don't understand is that today's gays are militant and on the march to silence the church's preaching of the Gospel and to outlaw the Christian's scriptural convictions. They are armed and dangerous, having an arsenal comprised of reputation destroying bad press, finically ruinous civil litigation for discrimination, and even the threat of criminal prosecution, thanks to our nation's new hate crimes laws.
For those of you brave enough to face the truth of what is really going on in America today, I recommend you read my book—Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: The Compelling Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage. The book is free and complimentary copies are available for distribution in churches. You can also read the book online here: http://bit.ly/1dVXpwgn
Looks like the "Jugs of Mud” (Jars of Clay) have gotten muddier since their frontman Dan Haseltine came out in favor of same-sex marriage. After suffering a considerable backlash for his disturbing comments from Bible-believing Christians, Haseltine honestly admitted that he has been secretly at odds with evangelical Christianity for some time. For instance, in 2012, while working on Jars of Clay’s album Inland, which is largely secular in nature, the singer shared some thoughts about his secret struggles with evangelicals in a blog post on his personal website. According to Haseltine, the fact that evangelical Christians would not embrace Jars of Clay's secular music was somewhat of a "relief" to him, since, as he put it, "I am pretty weary from years of pretending to be more of something than I am." He then added, "I am tired of carrying evangelical expectations on my shoulders.” Haseltine's honest admission confirms suspicions I've had for a long time, namely, that many popular, contemporary, Christian recording artists are pretending to be something they're not. The reason they practice such hypocrisy, which is what Jesus called it, is obvious; they're not in it for the sake of Christ, but for their own sakes. Rather than lifting up Jesus, they're seeking personal fame and fortune, and despicably using Christ's name, as well as His church, to do so.
My long held suspicions about many of today's contemporary Christian recording artists should not be misinterpreted to mean that I believe there is an absence of hypocrisy in other genres of music, like Southern Gospel, or in our church pews or pulpits. Neither should it be misinterpreted as a broad swipe at all contemporary Christian music. There are some contemporary Christian recording artists whose spirit definitely bears witness with my spirit, such as Chris Tomlin. I even believe God is using some Christian rappers like LeCrae to communicate the Gospel to people who I could never reach. Still, don't expect me to pull up next to you at a red light with LeCrea's music blaring out of my car's woofers.
Two things are far more disturbing to me than Dan Haseltine's descent down the slippery slope that Katy Perry recently traveled, which finally resulted in her denouncing both Christ and her Christian faith. First, there is Haseltine's deceptive description of casting off the cross from his shoulders, the cross which all followers of Christ are called upon to carry in this fallen world (Luke 14:27), as a mere freeing of himself from "carrying evangelical expectations on [his] shoulders." Have you noticed how much apostasy is being excused today as a mere revolting of the younger generation against the traditional church and the older generation? The young apostate characterizes his or her desertion from the cardinal doctrines of the historic and orthodox Christian faith as nothing more than a revolt against grandma and grandma's church. When scripturally rebuked for departing from sound doctrine and the orthodox Christian faith, today's young apostates refuse to defend their beliefs, words, and actions with Scripture, since they are scripturally indefensible. Instead, they just condemn anyone confronting them with the Scripture as an antiquated, self-righteous, know-it-all.
The above scenario is trapping the contemporary church in a perfect storm of apostasy. Apostasy grows unbounded in the contemporary church because of the reluctance of the older generation to contend for the faith, lest they incur the ire of the younger generation. At the same time, sound doctrine is becoming increasingly intolerable, thanks to the younger generation's spurning of it as "uncool." It's all adding up to the biblically predicted "perilous times" of the "last days" when men "will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts…heap to themselves teachers having itching ears" (2 Timothy 3:1; 4:3).
The second thing more disturbing to me than the ear-tickling Haseltine is the lack of those with ears to hear in today's church. Spiritual discernment is a rare commodity in contemporary churches. We seem to believe that the proof of genuine spirituality is worldly popularity. Yet, the Bible clearly teaches that the true follower of Christ will find himself/herself persecuted in this world rather than popular within it. The absence of the Spirit of God has become inconsequential to many a contemporary Christian who looks only for worldly glitz and glitter. As a result of stardust in their eyes, contemporary Christians place popular preachers and Christian performers atop the coveted pedestal of celebrity, where they are seen as above reproach. At the same time, however, the persecuted prophet of God is seen as a clueless old fool who doesn't understand how to reach people in a post-Christian world.
As I stated early, when I heard Jars of Clay at a Billy Graham Crusade in Tampa a few years ago, my spirit went into the heebie jeebies, especially when they started climbing the stage scaffolding and a young lady sitting next to us stood up and started doing something that resembled a pole dance. Still, I must admit, as I looked around, it seemed to me that I was the only one failing to discern the presence of the Spirit in the midst of the goings-on. In all honesty, I've had similar experiences in many so-called moves of God over the last several years. Where others have seen God in it, I've failed to sense the Spirit of God anywhere around it.
Have you ever asked yourself why scandals involving Christian celebrities are normally uncovered initially by the secular press? Have you ever asked yourself how a pretender like Dan Haseltine can get by for years without raising a single antenna of spiritual discernment among his many evangelical fans? Why is it that contemporary Christians never seem able to discern spiritual pretense on the part of those attempting to use the church for their own ends? Whether it's a politician attempting to use the church in pursuit of elected office or an entertainer attempting to use the church in pursuit of fame and fortune, the unsuspecting church keeps lining up at the polls and box office. Of course, once the politician gains office or the entertainer gains celebrity, the church and the Christian faith get tossed to the side like last week’s magazine.
Has the Price of Citizenship Become too High for Christians' to Pay?
An earthshaking event has occurred in America once again without America’s Christians feeling the least little tremble beneath their feet. The United States Supreme Court has allowed a most ominous ruling of the New Mexico State Supreme Court to stand. According to this ruling, "the price of citizenship" for Christians in America will henceforth be the sacrificing of our religious freedom and the compromising of our Christian convictions.
As I wrote in my book, Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: The Compelling Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage, homosexuals are purposely targeting Christian business owners with financially ruinous civil suits. One of the examples cited in my book is Elane Huguenin, a Christian photographer in Albuquerque, New Mexico who was sued for her refusal to photograph a lesbian couple’s same-sex wedding ceremony.
When the New Mexico Human Rights Commission ruled against Huguenin and in favor of the lesbian couple, Elane appealed her case to the New Mexico State Court of Appeals, which upheld the Human Rights Commission’s guilty verdict. Afterward, Huguenin again appealed her case, this time to the state Supreme Court. Much to her chagrin, the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Huguenin must photograph same-sex wedding ceremonies in violation of her Christian convictions.
In his concurring opinion to the majority opinion, Justice Richard C. Bosson asserted that everyone must make concessions in life over matters that violate their conscience. Bosson went on to write that Christians like Elane Huguenin and her husband Jon may freely live out their faith privately, but, when it comes to owning and operating a public business, they must check their religious faith at the door. According to Bosson, the compromising of our Christian convictions is “the price of citizenship.”
Citizenship in these United States once guaranteed Americans the right to freedom of religion. All citizens had a constitutionally guaranteed freedom to follow their religious convictions. Today, however, we’re being told by our courts that the forfeiture of our religious freedom and the compromising of our religious convictions is the price we must pay for our citizenship. In light of this unprecedented development, which literally turns our Constitution upside down, one cannot help but wonder about the value of present-day citizenship. What is it worth if it comes at the extremely high price of what it once guaranteed, namely, our rights and freedoms?
What makes this situation most ominous is the fact that the United States Supreme Court has refused to hear Huguenin’s final appeal, which translates into the New Mexico Supreme Court’s ruling becoming the new law of our land. As a result, American Christians suddenly find themselves without a legal right to publicly practice their faith or to publicly follow their Christian convictions.
That our courts are becoming increasingly antichrist is easily proven by their sheer hypocrisy. Take for example our judicial system’s legalization of abortion on demand. According to our courts, a woman’s “right to privacy” trumps her unborn child’s right to life. In spite of the fact that the unborn child’s right to life is guaranteed in our nation’s founding document, the Declaration of Independence, our present-day judiciary insists that a woman’s “right to privacy” gives her control over her own body so that she has the legal right to choose whether or not to terminate the life of her unborn child.
Now, at the same time our courts rule that women have a “right to privacy” over their own bodies, they also rule that Christians have no “right to privacy” over their privately owned businesses. Whereas women have the right to choose whether or not to take the life of their unborn children, Christian business owners have no right to choose who to do business with or what business services to offer. In both cases, our courts are found guilty of concocting law in order to justify the constitutionally unjustifiable; namely, denying the unborn child’s right to life and the Christian business owner’s right to the free exercise of religion.
In today’s America, all it takes to thwart the will of the people, to erase the laws of our land, or to stand our Constitution on its head is one black robe clad judge armed with a gavel. Once the gavel strikes, the judge’s personal opinion takes precedence over our nation’s founding documents and all previous jurisprudence. His or her opinion becomes the new law of the land and we find ourselves in a nation no longer ruled by law, but by lawyers.
Thomas Jefferson, the principle author of our Declaration of Independence, once warned of the danger of making “judges the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions.” According to Jefferson, this “very dangerous doctrine” would eventually lead to putting “us under the despotism of an oligarchy.” Jefferson went on to warn that granting the judiciary alone “the power of declaring what the law is” makes it into “a despotic branch” of government, makes judges into “despots” and makes the Constitution into “a mere thing of wax in the hands of the judiciary, which they may twist and shape into any form they please.”
Although Jefferson personally pleaded for America to reject the notion of judicial despotism once and for all, lest the judiciary “slyly and without alarm” accomplish “what open force would not dare attempt,” namely, the undermining of our Constitution and the overthrow of our government, today’s America has failed to heed the warning. Consequently, judges have now become kings, the bench a throne and gavels scepters. Rather than respecting the law and the rule of law, America has become a nation ruled by judges.
I know most people within the contemporary church yawn over today’s judicial despotism. They spend their time biting their nails over how to inoffensively share the Gospel with today’s politically correct culture. They are totally unaware of how our politically correct culture is attempting to silence the church’s witness altogether through today’s judicial despotism. It’s like the contemporary church is trying to pat the back of a politically correct culture that is trying to slice the throat of the contemporary church.
I’m afraid many contemporary Christians will not be shaken from their spiritual stupor until they suddenly awaken to the fact that they are living in a land that has outlawed their Christian faith. Then, they will have to decide, as Peter and John did (Acts 4:18-20), whether they will defy the antichrist courts of our day or deny the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter and John courageously defied the Supreme Court of their day and continued preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ regardless of cost and consequence to themselves. What will you do? One thing for sure, the time is quickly approaching when you will have to decide whether to stand up for your Christian convictions or bow down before a Supreme Court hellbent on silencing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in America.
Self-Preservation vs. the Preservation of the Gospel
Big news was made this week when World Vision publicly announced its decision to reverse its ban on hiring “Christians” in same-sex marriages. The decision was made in an effort to avoid losing funding from liberal denominations, such as the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Church of Christ. According to Franklin Graham, World Vision’s willingness to compromise its biblical stand on this critical issue of our day had Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision and Graham’s Samaritan's Purse, turning over in his grave.
The firestorm of criticism it suddenly found itself in following its public announcement to begin hiring homosexuals led World Vision to reconsider and quickly reverse its policy reversal. Unfortunately, World Vision’s motive in both decisions, its initial policy reversal and its subsequent reversal of its reversal, was financial, not doctrinal. Whereas the bottom line in its initial policy reversal was to avoid losing funding from liberal mainstream denominations, the bottom line in its reversal of its reversal was to avoid losing funding from conservative evangelical denominations, many of whom vowed to defund World Vision over its compromising of biblical doctrine and undermining of biblical authority.
In the end, World Vision simply weighed matters on the scales and decided that it would be more financially advantageous to reverse its reversal, since losing the funding of conservative churches would prove to be a greater blow to its finances than losing the funding of liberal churches. I’m reminded here of the words of our Savior: "No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24).
Although many of my Christian brethren will rejoice over World Vision's reversal of its reversal and praise it for standing up for biblical truth, I can't help but see in all of this something that is horribly wrong at the core of many churches, denominations, and Christian organizations today. Too many are overly concerned with their own survival—economic and otherwise—and too little concerned with the preservation of the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which poses the only hope of salvation for lost humanity!
As our Lord’s letter to the church in Ephesus proves, it’s not enough for us to do right things (Revelation 2:1-7). We must also do right things with right motives. Only when we’re doing right things for the right reason, our love for Christ, will our actions be acceptable and pleasing to Him. It is my contention that much of what is being done in the contemporary church is being done out of love for ourselves, our ministries, our churches, and our denominations, not out of love for our Savior.
Contrary to popular opinion among contemporary Christians, our mission in this world is not to preserve ourselves, our ministries, our churches, or our denominations. Instead, it is to preserve the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Churches come and churches go. For instance, the churches started by the Apostle Paul have long since passed away. Still, thanks to Paul’s staunch stance to protect the purity of the Gospel, we have a pure Gospel in the world today. This, more than the continuing existence of local congregations he started, is the legacy this chosen vessel of Christ left to our world.
Like the Apostle Paul, our mission in this world is to preserve the purity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our generation, as well as for future generations. As it has been astutely observed, Christianity is only one generation away from extinction. Therefore, we must pass the torch of a pure Gospel off to posterity if future generations are to have any hope of salvation. Nothing should take precedence over this when it comes to the church’s mission in the world today!
Perhaps, nothing is more indicative of the subtlety of the serpent in the world today than the contemporary church’s willingness to compromise the Gospel in its attempts to shut the door on the younger generation’s mass exodus from the church. Believing the future survival of local churches is dependent upon their success in reaching younger people, many local churches are willing to do whatever it takes to appeal to a amoral and avant-garde younger generation. Even if it means dulling the sharp doubled-edged sword of the Word of God. Overly concerned about the survival of their local congregation and unconcerned about the preservation of the purity of the Gospel, many “churches” today have pitched the offensive message of the cross of Christ to the side in order to pave a politically correct path to their front door for young relativists.
It is imperative today, and will become increasingly so in the days ahead, that Christians and churches come to understand that there are things far more important than our own survival. Truth is one of those things! Consequently, we should be willing to do whatever it takes to preserve it, even if it requires sacrificing ourselves, our ministries, our churches, and our denominations. It will do you well to remember in these days and times these most relevant words of our Redeemer: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it” (Mark 8:35). Take special note of our Lord’s particular appeal for us to be willing to sacrifice ourselves not only for Him, but for the Gospel. Are you willing to go to the mat for the truth of the Gospel or are you, like World Vision and many contemporary churches, willing to compromise the Word of God in order to survive?
The Terms of Our Surrender
An incredible article appeared in the New York Times recently. If you haven't read a complimentary copy of my book—Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: The Compelling Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage—read the Times article below. Although the article’s author, Ross Douthat, sees things from a different perspective, he says pretty much what I’ve said in my book.
The Terms of Our Surrender
by: Ross Douthat
IT now seems certain that before too many years elapse, the Supreme Court will be forced to acknowledge the logic of its own jurisprudence on same-sex marriage and redefine marriage to include gay couples in all 50 states.
Once this happens, the national debate essentially will be finished, but the country will remain divided, with a substantial minority of Americans, most of them religious, still committed to the older view of marriage.
So what then? One possibility is that this division will recede into the cultural background, with marriage joining the long list of topics on which Americans disagree without making a political issue out of it.
In this scenario, religious conservatives would essentially be left to promote their view of wedlock within their own institutions, as a kind of dissenting subculture emphasizing gender differences and procreation, while the wider culture declares that love and commitment are enough to make a marriage. And where conflicts arise — in a case where, say, a Mormon caterer or a Catholic photographer objected to working at a same-sex wedding — gay rights supporters would heed the advice of gay marriage’s intellectual progenitor, Andrew Sullivan, and let the dissenters opt out “in the name of their freedom — and ours.”
But there’s another possibility, in which the oft-invoked analogy between opposition to gay marriage and support for segregation in the 1960s South is pushed to its logical public-policy conclusion. In this scenario, the unwilling photographer or caterer would be treated like the proprietor of a segregated lunch counter, and face fines or lose his business — which is the intent of recent legal actions against a wedding photographer in New Mexico, a florist in Washington State, and a baker in Colorado.
Meanwhile, pressure would be brought to bear wherever the religious subculture brushed up against state power. Religious-affiliated adoption agencies would be closed if they declined to place children with same-sex couples. (This has happened in Massachusetts and Illinois.) Organizations and businesses that promoted the older definition of marriage would face constant procedural harassment, along the lines suggested by the mayors who battled with Chick-fil-A. And, eventually, religious schools and colleges would receive the same treatment as racist holdouts like Bob Jones University, losing access to public funds and seeing their tax-exempt status revoked.
In the past, this constant-pressure scenario has seemed the less-likely one, since Americans are better at agreeing to disagree than the culture war would suggest. But it feels a little bit more likely after last week’s “debate” in Arizona, over a bill that was designed to clarify whether existing religious freedom protections can be invoked by defendants like the florist or the photographer.
If you don’t recognize my description of the bill, then you probably followed the press coverage, which was mendacious and hysterical — evincing no familiarity with the legal issues, and endlessly parroting the line that the bill would institute “Jim Crow” for gays. (Never mind that in Arizona it’s currently legal to discriminate based on sexual orientation — and mass discrimination isn’t exactly breaking out.) Allegedly sensible centrists compared the bill’s supporters to segregationist politicians, liberals invoked the Bob Jones precedent to dismiss religious-liberty concerns, and Republican politicians behaved as though the law had been written by David Duke.
What makes this response particularly instructive is that such bills have been seen, in the past, as a way for religious conservatives to negotiate surrender — to accept same-sex marriage’s inevitability while carving out protections for dissent. But now, apparently, the official line is that you bigots don’t get to negotiate anymore.
Which has a certain bracing logic. If your only goal is ensuring that support for traditional marriage diminishes as rapidly as possible, applying constant pressure to religious individuals and institutions will probably do the job. Already, my fellow Christians are divided over these issues, and we’ll be more divided the more pressure we face. The conjugal, male-female view of marriage is too theologically rooted to disappear, but its remaining adherents can be marginalized, set against one another, and encouraged to conform.
I am being descriptive here, rather than self-pitying. Christians had plenty of opportunities — thousands of years’ worth — to treat gay people with real charity, and far too often chose intolerance. (And still do, in many instances and places.) So being marginalized, being sued, losing tax-exempt status — this will be uncomfortable, but we should keep perspective and remember our sins, and nobody should call it persecution.
But it’s still important for the winning side to recognize its power. We are not really having an argument about same-sex marriage anymore, and on the evidence of Arizona, we’re not having a negotiation. Instead, all that’s left is the timing of the final victory — and for the defeated to find out what settlement the victors will impose.
I find it extraordinary that a New York Times columnist has his finger on the pulse of the coming unprecedented persecution of the church in America, while the vast majority of those within the contemporary church are oblivious to it or in total denial of it. Granted, Ross Douthat refuses to call what is happening to the church in America persecution. Instead, he suggest that the church is getting its just deserts for "thousands of years" of "intolerance" and lack of "real charity" toward "gay people." Like most contemporary Christians, Ross Douthat blames the church for all of its modern-day woes and exonerates this fallen world of all culpability. I guess this explains why this fallen world crucified Christ? And I always thought it was because of its hostility toward God and hatred of the truth (John 7:7; 15:18-25).
In the days ahead, there will be no more middle road or fence sitting for those who claim to be Christian. Local churches will either surrender to the culture or, as Douthat predicts, be "marginalized" and forced into "the cultural background." We will all have to decide for ourselves whether we will pander to the politically correct culture or be persecuted by it for standing up for the truth. What will you do?
Before making this all-important choice, you should consider two important things. First, as the lone steward of the Gospel, it is imperative for the salvation of our lost family and friends that the church preach unadulterated biblical truth, regardless of cost and consequence to ourselves. Second, in the end, it will not be today's politically correct culture you will stand before and answer to, but the Lord Jesus Christ. Choose wisely my friend; much is at stake—the immortal souls of your family and friends, as well as whether or not you will be found faithful before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10).
Hospitals for Souls
This passed Monday I was at the dentist with my wife. She had an abscessed tooth. She, like most of us, put off going to the dentist until she had to. No one wants to go to the dentist. Although dentistry is a needed and helpful profession, the dentist is still unpopular and his office a dreaded place to visit. Still, when your toothache becomes unbearable you will call for an appointment and get yourself to the dentist.
What is true of the dentist and his office is equally true of the doctor and his office. Like the dentist, no one wants to go to the doctor, but the doctor is needed by the sick, despite the fact that they don't look forward to visiting his office. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never met anyone who was excited about being admitted to a hospital. Yet, I’ve known a lot of people who benefitted from a hospital stay and we're grateful afterward for the healthcare they received while there.
I can't imagine a dentist or doctor trying to advertise themselves as something other than what they are. Neither can I imagine them attempting to promote their offices as fun and entertaining places to visit. What would you think of a doctor or dentist who tries to improve his public image by downplaying the seriousness of heart disease or tooth decay? After all, by doing so he could waylay peoples’ fears and make them less hesitant to come to his office, since they wouldn’t have to worry about him diagnosing them with any serious malady or prescribing for them any radical cure.
What if doctors and dentists started promising to make their patients happy with treatments that were cheap or costless, comfortable and painless, as well as conformable to their patients’ personal preferences and tailor-made prescriptions? No one who mind getting into the dentist’s chair or onto the doctor’s examination table as long as he could self-diagnose his own problem and personally prescribe for himself his own concocted cure.
Needless to say, if today’s medical professionals began focusing on increasing their patient rolls rather than on the wellbeing of their patients, healthcare would be greatly jeopardized and visiting a doctor’s or dentist’s office could prove to be more detrimental than beneficial to one’s health. Sure, one may leave without any worries and without having experienced any discomfort, but one would also leave with their real medical condition undiagnosed, untreated and uncured. If their condition is fatal, they will die from it while praising their doctor’s wonderful bedside manner and the lovely decor of his office.
In Luke 5:31-32, Jesus said: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Just as no one goes to the doctor because they want to, but only upon the personal realization that they need to; so also, no one comes to repentance because they want to, but only upon the personal realization that they need to. Furthermore, one’s realization of their personal need of repentance only comes by divine revelation. It only comes when the Holy Spirit convicts the sinner to turn from his sin with a broken heart and to turn to the Savior with all of his heart.
In his Christian classic, My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers writes, “The entrance into the Kingdom is through the panging pains of repentance.” Chambers goes on to add that it is “the Holy Spirit who produces these agonies.” Make no mistake about it; the conviction of the Hoy Spirit is a most agonizing experience for the human soul. There is no way to paint up the “panging pains of repentance” as anything other than what they are. They are such an unbearable affliction that the convicted sinner is compelled to go to the Great Physician, knowing that Christ alone is capable of curing the otherwise incurable and fatal disease of the sinner’s lost and immortal soul.
The only “pill” that cures sin is the “Gospill.” The only steward of the Gospel in the world today is the church. Christ has entrusted His Gospel to us and commissioned us to preach it to all men everywhere. We are to boldly proclaim it as the only divine remedy for man’s sinful condition. In light of this, we can see ourselves as spiritual physicians and our churches as hospitals for souls.
If one sees the church as a hospital for souls and Christians, pastors in particularly, as spiritual physicians, then, one will be forced to conclude that what is true of doctors, dentists, and hospitals is equally true of pastors, Christians, and churches. If the God-given purpose of all churches is to attend to sick immortal souls, then, how can we pass our churches off as fun and entertaining places to attend? In addition, how can we attempt to improve our public image by downplaying the seriousness of sin—the eternally fatal disease of the human soul—or by compromising God's cure for sin—the Gospel of Jesus Christ—by promising sinners a costless, comfortable, and convenient salvation that can even be tailor-made to their own personal whims and wishes?
When we start focusing on our membership rolls or church attendance rather than the salvation of lost souls through the church’s preaching of an uncompromised Gospel, we greatly jeopardize our ability to fulfill the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. Rather than experiencing the Spirit’s conviction in our churches and a sense of urgency to repent, sinners will find themselves comfortable in our churches and lackadaisical about their lost condition. Sure, they may leave our churches with tickled fancies and unhurt feelings, but they will also leave estranged from God and one heartbeat away from a Christless eternity. Although they, like the rich man Jesus tells about in Luke 16:23, may someday lift up their eyes in Hell, for the time being they can applaud us for our entertaining church services and comfortable auditoriums.
I Ain't Cool and I Know It
I recently told my wife that my greatest asset in these days was the fact that I’m over myself. I’ve come to terms with my seeming irrelevance. I fully understand that it’s not about me, but it’s all about Christ. My significance in this world is found in Christ’s use of me for His glory. Nothing else in my life has eternal consequence. My sole desire, apart from conformity to Christ through daily communion with Him, is to be used by Christ in every way He can use me, as well as in the greatest ways He can use me for His glory.
I was recently told by a professional marketer that as an author all I could possibly hope for in today’s politically correct world was a very small niche audience. A newspaper editor once told me that I could never be a syndicated columnist, because my articles were to hard-hitting and controversial. According to him, printing my pieces could prove most detrimental to newspapers in a day when they are already fighting for their survival, thanks to the world’s ever-increasing conversion to digital media.
Well, what’s a guy like me to do. I could tone it down, write with a softer led pencil, and aim at giving readers the warm fuzzies rather than at glorifying God. If I did, I might become marketable and create for myself the potential of a wider readership. But, as I’ve already pointed out, I’m totally convinced that it’s not about me, but all about Him. Therefore, I find any obscuring of Christ on my part for the purpose of self-promotion to be absolutely deplorable.
I know many will argue that we have to conform to the world in order to convert it. After all, how are we going to influence the world if it ignores us and is incensed by us? We must meet the world on its terms if we are to exercise any influence within it. This is the popular justification offered for compromise today. From politics to the pulpit, we are told that the compromising of truth is essential to success. No one can get anywhere in today’s world who refuses to soften their stand for the truth and to speak ambiguously rather than straightforwardly.
Today’s politicians justify compromise on their part as essential for their election to public office. According to them, without compromise they cannot be elected and without being elected they cannot possibly make a difference. Yet, I’m reminded here of one who lost a public election by a landslide to a common criminal all because of His absolute refusal to compromise the truth (Matthew 27:11-26). As a result of His courageous stand for the truth, He was executed by public demand on a cruel Roman cross. Still, no one has ever made such a difference in this world as this plain-spoken, truth-telling, uncompromising Nazarene.
Many preachers today justify compromise on their part as essential to church growth. According to them, people won’t even come to church if we plainly and boldly proclaim the truth. Therefore, to make our pulpits appealing to today’s politically correct world we must be ambiguous about the truth. We must draw people in with other things and afterward attempt to sneak the truth in on them incrementally, one tiny teaspoonful at a time.
The fatal flaw in this kind of spiritual false advertising is found in the fact that men are not persuaded to come to Christ by our entertaining and appealing church services, by our tactful, tight-lipped, incremental gospel presentations, or by our persuasive and inoffensive pulpiteering. Instead, men are only persuaded to come to Christ under the power of God. It is under the power of the Holy Spirit that sinners are convicted of their sin and persuaded to turn to the Savior. Apart from the Holy Spirit’s conviction, no man is able to confess Jesus as Lord (1 Corinthians 12:3). Furthermore, apart from the simple and straightforward preaching of Christ and Him crucified, no man will ever be convicted by the Holy Spirit of God.
When the leaders of the Jerusalem church, in an attempt to make the Gospel more appealing to the Jews and to lessen a growing conflict in the church over the controversial issue of circumcision, attempted to persuade the Apostle Paul to back off from his staunch opposition to the circumcision of Gentile believers, Paul refused to budge an inch or to give in for a second (Galatians 2:5). He understood, as few do today, that the least little compromising of the Gospel is all it takes to corrupt it and to imperil its purity for posterity. Rather than safeguarding the truth of the Gospel for future generations, if Paul had failed to stand his ground, the Christian faith would have been reduced to a Jewish sect and would have never gotten off the ground as the universal faith it is today, a faith calling all men everywhere to repent of their sin and to trust Christ for their salvation.
The Apostle Paul was under no illusion that the pure Gospel he preached would be popular in this world. He understood that it was the ultimate insult to lost humanity. The preaching of the cross is an unavoidable offense to this lost and dying world (Galatians 5:11). Think about it; whereas every other religion in the world teaches that man is good enough to save himself and to earn his own way to Heaven, Christianity teaches that we are so sinfully depraved and hopelessly and helplessly lost that there is absolutely nothing we can ever do to earn for ourselves God’s salvation or acceptance.
Since sinners are completely incapable of saving themselves from sin, Christ had to come into this world and do for us everything necessary for our salvation. Now that He has, the only thing we can do to be saved from our sin and reconciled to God is swallow our pride, come to Christ humbly on our knees, and reach out by faith and receive from His gracious nail-scarred hand a divine handout; namely, the gift of God, which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23).
It is my contention that the message of the Gospel is proof positive that the Christian faith alone is true and that all other faiths are false. The only possible explanation for the origin of the Gospel is a divine one. No man would have ever made up a faith so unflattering to lost humanity.
In 2 Timothy 1:8, Paul’s young protege Timothy is admonished by Paul not to be ashamed of Paul’s imprisonment or of Christ’s testimony; that is, the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. What possible reason could Timothy have for being ashamed of Paul, his mentor, or of Christ, his Master? The so-called super apostles, the suave, silver-tongued preachers of another gospel (2 Corinthians 11:4-5 NIV), used their popularity in the world as proof of God’s favor. At the same time, they used Paul’s imprisonment and Christ’s crucifixion to discredit them as miserable failures whose unpopularity in the world served as proof of God’s disfavor.
Instead of boasting about his worldly success, the Apostle Paul boasted about his sufferings in this world (2 Corinthians 11:1-33). Instead of teaching, like the super apostles, that worldly popularity was proof of God’s favor, Paul taught that this world’s persecution serves as the sure sign of faithful service to Christ (2 Timothy 3:12). Just as this fallen world was incapable of loving Christ, because He was not of the world, so is it now incapable of loving all who faithfully follow Christ, since they too are completely out of step with the world (John 15:18-25).
Contrary to the teachings of the super apostles, Paul taught Timothy that the true servant of God would always be more appalling to the world than appealing to it. As James put it, being the world’s friend is being God’s enemy and choosing to be a friend of the world is to make oneself an enemy of God (James 4:4). In spite of these clear teachings of Scripture, the contemporary church, like the super apostles, measures spiritual success by worldly appeal and dismisses the persecuted as ineffectual servants of Christ.
In his Christian classic, Born Crucified, L. E. Maxwell wrote: “Mark well, O popular Christian and worldly-wise preacher, venturing how far you must go with the world in order to win the world: never had the church so much influence over the world as when she had nothing to do with the world.” It was the severely persecuted first century church that turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6). It was in the face of the world’s vehement opposition and violent persecution that the early church led a third of the world’s population to kneel at the foot of the cross of Christ. As a result, one of the early Church Fathers, Tertullian, said, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” The more the world tried to stamp out the church, the more the church spread and the more of the world it took.
It is not just in contradiction to the truths of Scripture, but also in contradiction to the facts of history, that today’s church insists that the only way to win the world is by becoming chummy with it and by conforming to it. All who say differently are not only dismissed today as antiquated old fogies rendering themselves irrelevant in today’s high-tech, politically correct world, but are also denounced as intolerant for their refusal to believe that the church can group hug a world at enmity with God into the kingdom of Heaven.
When will we learn that it is not winning elections or growing large churches that changes the world for Christ? Instead, it’s God’s truth and His people’s uncompromising declaration of it, regardless of cost or consequence to ourselves? Jesus, who declared Himself to be “the truth” (John 14:6), taught us that it is only by coming to know the truth that we can be free (John 8:32). Free from what? From Satan, sin, and self. Free for what? Free to be all that God created us to be and to live the life God created us to live. It is coming to know Jesus—the truth—that makes us “free indeed” (John 8:32). Yet, how can men come to know Christ if the church is reluctant to introduce them to Him or attempts to introduce Christ to them incognito?
Recently, Katy Perry, a former gospel recording artist turned pop star, renounced her Christian faith. Although Ms. Perry started out singing contemporary Christian music, she switched to secular pop music in 2007, releasing her first single with Capitol Records, a song about experimentation with lesbianism entitled, I Kissed a Girl. Since then, she has zoomed to the top of the charts and become one of the world’s most popular pop stars.
In a recent interview with Marie Claire Magazine, Ms. Perry confessed, “I’m not Buddhist, I’m not Hindu, I’m not Christian, but I still feel like I have a deep connection with God.” She went on to say, “I don’t believe in a Heaven or a Hell, or an old man sitting on a throne.” Of course, Ms. Perry is just the latest in a long line of contemporary Christian artists who have switched from Christian music to secular music and afterward renounced their former Christian profession to the applause of the world.
As deplorable as I find the betrayal of our Lord by the Katy Perrys of our world, what is even more deplorable to me is the reaction of Ms. Perry’s father to his daughter’s apostasy. Her father, Keith Hudson, who pastors Church on the Rise in Westlake, Ohio, has come out in defense of his daughter’s renunciation of Christ. According to Pastor Hudson, we shouldn’t be “judgmental” or “critical” of his daughter, because “God has given [them] a platform to go in and meet people—and [people] like [them] because [they] are cool.”
I suspect that cool rather than cold is just as nauseating to Christ as being lukewarm rather than hot (Revelation 3:15-16). In addition, I’m convinced that much of what passes for healthy spiritual behavior in today’s church is sickening to Christ. But, what do I know, I’m one of those antiquated old fogies who still believes that the salvation of lost souls is not contingent upon how “cool” we are, but upon whether or not we are willing to faithfully and fearlessly preach a pure and unadulterated Gospel, which alone is the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16).
Unlike Katy Perry and her family, I’m not cool and I know it. Mine is an ever-narrowing platform and an ever-shrinking audience. Not only am I not popular, but my unpopularity in today’s politically correct world is growing by leaps and bounds. When it comes to growing congregations with my preaching, I’m afraid my sermons are far more likely to shrink them than to grow them. It’s clear to me that I’m inevitably headed, as was the Apostle Paul, to being abandoned someday in my own “Mamertine Prison” (2 Timothy 1:15; 4:16). Yet, like Paul, I say, “But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
Hard Core Christianity
I love old classic movies. In light of this, my granddaughter Alayna recently asked me if the world was black and white when I was young. After assuring her that it was just as colorful when I was young as it is today, I couldn’t help but think that the world was, at least in one sense of the word, more black and white in the past.
In the past, we believed that some things were “white”—right and true—and others were “black”—wrong and false. Today, however, we’ve bought into the end-time lie of relativism. Relativism is the belief that there are no absolute truths. Interestingly, relativism is actually a contradiction of itself, since it is a belief in an absolute truth; namely, that there are no absolute truths. Still, relativism is championed today as the intellectual high ground that enables humanity to traverse this world without stepping down to tread upon the low road of intolerance. Thus, all who live in the gray of relativism are considered intelligent and tolerant, while all who still believe in the black and white of right and wrong are considered ignorant and intolerant.
The only thing roundly condemned as wrong anymore is the belief in right and wrong. Anyone daring to call something a sin will be immediately condemned for being intolerant toward all who practice and perpetrate it. For instance, if you say homosexuality is a sin, as the Bible clearly teaches, then, you are homophobic and a hatemonger. There is nothing wrong with homosexuality, nor anything else for that matter, but something horribly wrong with you for daring to say that anything is wrong.
Although it is bad enough for this horrible state of spiritual affairs to be found in this fallen world, it is made much worse by the inroads this deceptive and destructive philosophy has made into the contemporary church. Many in today’s pews and pulpits have fallen for the lie that the sharp double-edged sword of the Gospel must now be dulled in order to avoid offending the sensibilities of sinners in today’s politically correct culture. According to these peddlers of spiritual soft soap, we must no longer preach against sin and call men everywhere to repentance, as Christ commissioned us to do (Luke 24:47). Instead, we must preach that Christ is on the side of everyone, even the unrepentant sinner, and that His only desire is to make us all happy. Never mine that such a message is foreign to the Gospel Christ commissioned us to preach, it is still perceived by many in the contemporary church as necessary sugarcoating. How else, they argue, can we make the Gospel palatable to today’s truth-regurgitating world.
Rather than being used by God to transform the culture by preaching an uncompromised Gospel, today’s church is being transformed by the culture to the point of compromising the Gospel. In addition to preaching what men want to hear rather than what Christ has commissioned us to preach, the contemporary church is also becoming indistinguishable from the world. Consequently, the world is becoming more influential in the church and the church is becoming more irrelevant in the world.
A good example of the sad state of spiritual affairs in many modern-day churches is the growing number of young people who profess to be “hard core Christians.” What they normally mean by such a profession is that they frequent tattoo parlors, ride Harleys, and love punk rock or hard rock music. In other words, they’re professed followers of Christ who are living their lives in conformity to the world. Although such a profession is incontrovertibly contradictory to the teaching of Scripture, it doesn’t even raise an eyebrow in the contemporary church, which views such confessions as compulsory if Christians are to convert the world by conforming to it.
In Romans 12:2, the Apostle Paul admonishes us not to “let the world around [us] squeeze [us] into its own mold” (J.B. Phillips New Testament). Far from following this clear scriptural admonition, the pews and pulpits of the contemporary church are populated by those who have been molded, formed and fashioned by the world into common “earthenware.” Instead of being a peculiar people who have separated ourselves from the the world for God’s purposes (1 Peter 2:9; 2 Corinthians 6:17), the average Christian today purposely mimics the world in a futile attempt to convert it by becoming a carbon copy of it.
If you take the time to look up the definition of “hard core” in the dictionary, you will discover that it means “the most active, committed, or doctrinaire members of a group or movement." In other words, the true hard core Christian is one who is so committed to Christ that he refuses to compromise the absolute truths of the Bible. He or she spurns today’s political correctness in deference to biblical sound doctrine, regardless of personal cost or consequence.
Contrary to popular opinion in the contemporary church, hard core Christianity has nothing to do with punk rock music, riding motorcycles, or getting a tattoo. It has everything to do with defending the faith once delivered to the saints and preserving the purity of the Gospel for succeeding generations. It is to this end that Time For Truth Ministries is wholeheartedly dedicated. We unabashedly claim to be true practitioners of hard core Christianity. We refuse to back off, back down, or back away from the absolute truths of the Scripture. In addition, we refuse to bow or cower before a politically correct culture, regardless of how roundly it condemns us for intolerance over our offending of its politically correct sensibilities with our bold and uncompromised preaching of Christ and Him crucified.
Like the Apostle Paul, we boldly proclaim that we are “not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one who believes” (Romans 1:16). Our brash and unabashed preaching of the Gospel is done under divine compulsion. I say with the Apostle Paul, “Woe is me, if I preach not the Gospel” (1 Corinthians 9:16). Being Christ’s ambassadors in this world should result in us coming under divine compulsion to cry out to all men everywhere in Christ’s stead, “Be ye reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5:20). This is real hard core Christianity. Unfortunately, it’s becoming increasingly rare in today’s politically correct world.
The Telling Story of the Romeike Family
The Hitler Youth movement was used by Adolf Hitler to indoctrinate an entire generation of Germans into pledging their allegiance to the Third Reich and into becoming loyal Nazis. Hitler explained the process by which German youth were brainwashed in the following words: "Boys and girls enter our organizations [at] ten years of age…after four years they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years…And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six [to] seven months." If after all of this, any of them still held beliefs contrary to national socialism, Hitler promised "the Wehrmacht"; that is, the German armed forces, "would take care of them."
To pull off his indoctrination of Germany's youth, Hitler outlawed homeschooling in 1938, forcing all German children into the public schools, where they would be force-fed Nazi propaganda. A main target of Hitler's outlawing of homeschooling was the influence of Christian homes and churches on Germany's children. In fact, Hitler used his Hitler Youth to break up church youth movements, spy on Bible studies, and to discourage church attendance. Although much has changed in Germany since the days of Adolf Hitler, it is still against the law to homeschool your children.
In 2008, the Romeike family fled to the United States after being ordered by the German government to stop homeschooling their children in violation of national law. Ewe and Hannelore Romeike, the Christian parents of six children, were granted asylum by an immigration judge in 2010. The judge, Lawrence Burman, granted asylum to the Romeikes on the basis of his belief that they would face persecution for their faith if returned to Germany. At first glance, one would think that this was a happy ending to the Romeike story, but such is not the case.
The Obama Justice Department, under Attorney General Eric Holder, appealed Judge Burman's decision and eventually proved successful in having it overturned by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. According to the Obama Justice Department, the German government has every right to force all German children to attend Germany's public schools as part of its effort to create an "open, pluralistic society." Such an argument from the Obama Administration sounds eerily similar to the 2007 German Supreme Court ruling that mandated German children be sent to the country's public schools. The German high court explained its ruling of mandatory attendance of all children in the public schools as necessary to "counteract the development of religious and philosophically motivated parallel societies." All of this leads us to an inevitable and frightening conclusion. If the Obama Administration believes the German government has the right to indoctrinate all German children in its public schools, including and in particular the children of Christians, it must also believe that it has the right to indoctrinate all American children in our public schools.
The Romeikes, at least for the time being, are still living in rural Tennessee. They have appealed their case to the United States Supreme Court, in hopes that the highest court in our land will see their case differently from the highest court in their homeland. Interestingly, the Obama Administration has so far waived its right to respond, believing the Romeike's case is too insignificant for the United States Supreme Court to waste its valuable time on. This, in itself, poses a most intriguing question. If the Obama Administration believes this case to be so insignificant, then, why has it invested so much time and taxpayer dollars to get this Christian, homeschooling family sent back to Germany? The only possible answer to this question is most disconcerting. The Obama Administration obviously does not care about the persecution of Christians, only about the indoctrination of their children
We have all learned in recent days that our president is inattentive when it comes to the major problems facing today's America. However, he is laser focused on persecuting Christians, like the Romeikes and David Green, the owner of Hobby Lobby, who refuse to compromise their God-given convictions. He is equally determined to indoctrinate our children so as to turn them into politically correct members of an "open" and "pluralistic society." In other words, a society within which no biblical doctrine is truly believed nor any Christian conviction sincerely held.
Click here to watch this revealing video: The Romeike Story
http://youtu.be/TTw8x4Uuf8Y
