Are Christians Called To Love Homosexuals?

To answer the title in a word, no. But don't go letting your head explode on me just yet. Keep reading please because I have two things to say to qualify that answer.

1. Nowhere in scripture are we called to "love the homosexual".  What we are called to do is to love our fellow sinners. To say that we are called to love the homosexual does two things. First, it gives a particular sin a feeling of specialness.   The special attention this sin receives is the result of bleed-over from our culture into Christianity.  Second, it allows the sinner to adopt his sin as an identity. What man, given the definition of adultery that Jesus gave, is not an adulterer? I'd say the vast majority are, given the low bar set by Jesus for becoming one. But I've yet to see anyone proclaiming, or demanding, that Christians ought to love the adulterer and stop judging him and to be more accepting of his special sin.

2. The second is more important. The command in scripture to "love" our fellow man, that is those who persecute us, those who are enemies of God, and a host of other sinners, ought to have us examining the verb "love". Scripture is not silent on this matter, but let me first say that nowhere does scripture confuse the word love with acceptance. The common mantra of our day is that Jesus accepts the sinner wherever he is. I don't think that's true. Jesus loves the sinner wherever he is, but he rejects his sin. For example, let's look at an occasion that does not carry the cultural baggage of the modernday homosexual; the rich young ruler.  Jesus did not accept this young man's sin of idolatry, yet the scriptures tell us "...Jesus felt a love for him... ". (Mk 10:21)

The modern Church is constantly admonishing us to love like Jesus loved.  But I can't help but to think that there is a difference between what we're being admonished to do and what scripture teaches us to do. From the beginning to the end of Jesus' ministry his sermons can be summed up by "repent for the Kingdom of God is near".  He did not preach "accept sins that are popular in your day".

To be sure there is a caricature of Christians who are pointing their fingers in angry self-righteous indignation and demanding repentance.  While I'm sure there are some who do this--and we are supposed to love them too by the way--this does not mean that we are to be more accepting of a popular sin in order to mitigate that caricature.  That would be folly.

In short, we are not to confuse love with acceptance.  While it is certainly possible to love without accepting there is a very real danger in our present age of unwittingly not loving while accepting.

So, are we to love the homosexual?  No, we are to love the sinner, every sinner, enough to call him to repentance in a compassionate and loving way.

How Does One Reconcile The Love Of God And Hell?

The modern day Christian lives in a dilemma as he contemplates his religion and his culture.  The dilemma is between having an internally consistent worldview and serving a God who, through the eyes of man and culture, appears to be a monster.  The question in the title of this post highlights at least part of this dilemma, and it demands an answer!

To answer requires a starting point.  So we should start by ever distinguishing between cultural assertions and biblical truth.  The culture asserts that, as far as the "self" is concerned, it is sovereign. That is, the average individual we meet will reject the existence of an objective basis for  right and wrong. Just as in the days of the Judges, in which "every man did what was right in his own eyes", (Judg 17:6) right and wrong is currently said to be dredged up from between the ears of each individual.  In a culture that has embraced this view the individual finds himself floating on a sea of opinions based on personal feelings. In the modern mind, "That doesn't make me feel good" carries the same weight as "Thou shalt not..."; in fact, it carries more weight.  Unfortunately for the average individual, the mind adrift on this sea is easily blown this way and that by winds created by the rulers, the powers, the world forces of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness.  (Eph 6:12)

So, for the average modern man, to be told that he is not a good person is a full frontal assault on his sensibilities.  Any God that would say such a thing, therefore, must be the figment of the imaginations of little monsters themselves.  Either that or God actually is a monster. For if the reference point for good and evil is the self, how can any "self" conclude that itself is wicked while using the same self as a basis for good and evil?  And if the self doesn't conclude that itself is wicked, how can it ever conclude that it is heaping up for that same self the wrath of God, as the Bible plainly says it is?  And if it can't conclude that it's in dire eternal straits, how can it ever realize that it is in desperate need of some eternal good news? The short answer is that it can't.

This current zeitgeist poses a problem for the contemporary Christian because the spirit of this age is averse to the eternal truths of scripture which asserts in no uncertain terms that man is wicked to the core, dead in his sins, unable to do anything to remedy that fact, is in desperate need of salvation from that predicament, and without which he will pay an eternal price. That is the Biblical view of man.  And needless to say, man doesn't like it; not then, not now, and not ever.

But it doesn't end there.  The Biblical view of God is that He is perfect in every way, that He is holy and righteous, and also that he is just. Being just, therefore, necessitates that He is a God of wrath against all injustice who sees all men as deserving of eternal damnation; yes, every last one, male and female.  These words of Jesus put it best:

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already... (John 3:17-18)

So this puts the modern Western Christian in a difficult place.  He is afraid that if he presents the truth about God and man his religion will be rejected.  And he is right in thinking that, but he would be wrong in moderating the truths in his message.

But this is what has happened.  Christianity began moderating its message early in the last century by teaching half truths about the love of God. The wrath of God was increasingly ignored because it was unpalatable, and as went the wrath of God, so went the fear of God, and the beauty of grace.  I will expound on this later, but the point I want to make now is that these half truths were not presented to a static world.  Generations are ever being born and passing away.  A half truth in one generation will become the whole in the next. It will have the same cumulative effect on the culture as drinking saltwater has on the human body.  The more half truths we imbibe, the more we need. In the end, unless we get pure water, death is certain.  And we are observing this very thing all around. We are living our lives in a dying culture that reaches out in vain for pure water; some sort of truth to which it may cling.

These half-truths ushered in the internally inconsistent Christian worldviews that are best summed up by the expression that God loves everyone unconditionally.  I was born in the 1960's, back when people still talked about the Bible a little bit, and I knew that Jesus had quite a lot to say about lakes of fire and eternal torment.  I rejected the notion of unconditional love because I knew that the person who was preaching that message either worshiped a different God than his Bible proclaimed or he was ignorant of what his Bible said.  In either case, the message of unconditional love was equally pathetic and uncompelling to me with the knowledge that the Bible painted a different story, one in which an eternal fate of agony hung in the balance.

This God-loves-everyone-unconditionally message eventually became the mainstream of Christian thought and it has gutted the western church of sound doctrine.  If Christianity either rejects, ignores, hides or is ashamed of a basic foundational component of its own religion involving man's condition and certain attributes of God that it sees as offensive, or "unloving" what's left?

When the truth about man and God are ignored or downplayed, then good and evil themselves transition from truths that are objective to truths that are subjective. The self is returned to the throne as judge over what is to be considered good and evil. The individual then becomes the basis from which all things are measured with the assurance that no matter what that basis is that God loves him unconditionally. Feelings are king. This is evidenced in the experience and self-oriented worship so prevalent in this time. Service and mercy-oriented works to "help the poor" are exchanged for the Gospel.  "Grace" covered licentiousness, especially when it comes to libertine freedoms, are increasingly the norm. In addition, we see wholesale heresy with entire denominations becoming apostate. Around every corner, there arises another Christian pop-star who announces his or her coming out of the closet as an active homosexual, or by publicly embracing what scripture clearly teaches is wrong... all under the umbrella of "God loves everybody unconditionally".  Unitarianism and Universalism are on the rise. Here is a statement made by a pastor on the subject of "Chrislam", which is a combination of Islam and Christianity. It is typical of all sorts of misguided theology that finds God's unconditional love as it's root:

"But let's make sure that we view God through the eyes of Jesus, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the beauty of a Savior, the loving open inclusive arms of a loving God."  (1)

We can be sure that whether Christianity is being synchronized with the world or other religions, the root of the problem is tapped into the same soil.


This brings us back to the question asked in the title. How does one reconcile the love of God and Hell?  What is the whole truth?  When we elevate man to a state of goodness, only with a few flaws; when we make goodness dependent on man's internal compass, when we see God's love as something that we deserve, the true love of God is diminished.  It's one thing to love someone who we think deserves to be loved.  But that love is not the same as loving someone who hates you and wants you dead.  But that is the picture the Bible paints of man, who is, in his natural state, at war with God.  So if God loves, even one of us, he is first loving someone who hates Him.  On the same token, when we are ashamed of a God who would send people to eternal torment--when we reject the wrath of God against all unrighteousness and hide the fact that the just, right, and holy thing for God to do is to send all men to Hell, we are judging God according to our own standards, and at the same time obscuring the real love of God found in the cross, for it'sIt is in the contrast of the total depravity of man and the holiness of God that God's love truly shines for the amazing thing that it is.  And to the extent that we miss that contrast in its stark reality, the true love of God is missed; the true love that a holy God would demonstrate to depraved man by sending his sinless Son to pay the price for their sins, even though not one deserved that sacrifice.  This is the condition that makes God's love conditional.  

But this raises an often missed question. What exactly can we know about the love of God from the scriptures? With such an emphasis as we see in the present age on God's unconditional love for each and every one of us, you'd think that the Bible would be filled with references to His love for us. But I'm afraid that that's not the case. The word love is used quite often. But it might surprise some to realize that the vast majority of those references are found in God's commands for us to love Him, and to love others.  In the Old Testament His love is not extended to every human being but rather is expressed to his chosen people, Israel. In the New Testament we are told several times that God loves us, but take notice, with one exception, it is always mentioned in the context of the cross:

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 

Rom 5:4-9 ...and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 

Rom 8:33-36  Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. 35 Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 

 2 Cor 5:14-15  For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; 

Eph 2:4-5 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up with Him,

Eph 5:2  ...just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God ...

Eph 5:25-26 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, ...

Titus 3:4-7 But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, 5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 

1 John 4:9-11  By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

The list above is not an exhaustive list of scripture telling us that God loves us, but I do believe it almost is.  God does not love us unconditionally, at least not in the way modern man understands "conditionally". Let me show why I say this:

John 14:21-22 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him." 

1 John 2:3-5  By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.

1 John 5:3-4  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 

1 John 2:29-3:1  If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.  See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.

So this brings us back to a worldly question.  If I am saved by grace, why is God's love conditional?  Therein we find the answer to the question of how the love of God is reconciled with Hell.  God's love is conditional in the sense that we are dead in our trespasses, yet he still saves some.  There was nothing the dead could do as a condition to bring that about.  But after being saved, our sanctifying process begins and we begin to grow into Christ-likeness.  In the same way that birds are not birds on the condition that they can fly but rather birds fly because they are birds, Christians don't obey God's commands as a condition of salvation, they obey His commands because they are Christians.  Therefore when we disobey God's commands, although we are heartsick, we are still in his love.  But as we disobey His commands, we realize even more the great love He has for us because we see who we are, and what a great salvation it was that saved us, and we also realize God's holiness, and what a great work of love He accomplished on the cross.

But these are strange words in the ears of the modern Christian.  There is no law, and with no law, there can be no lawlessness to avoid.  We are saved by grace and can do anything we want except "judge" anything as unrighteous.  This complete disconnect from objective truth, which is that man has fallen short of the glory of God and that God's mercy, which was shown when He sent His Son to die for sinners, has set the vast majority of the western church adrift on a sea of opinions.  It should be no surprise then that Husbands are abandoning their families to chase after temporal dreams.  Why not?  He's not under any law and we're told that God does love him unconditionally because he is after all made in His image, and to call his sin sin would be judgemental and unloving.  Besides, God doesn't hate him, no, he loves him, it's his sin that God hates.  The husband can sow to the flesh in this world and reap a harvest of heavenly bliss in the next.  The same goes for wives abandoning their families, and for the murderer of children in the womb, and every other sin that this culture embraces.  God loves everybody and we can do as we damn well please, thank you very much. And, we can turn Christianity into Christlam because God is "inclusive" and loves diversity because diversity is love... or so we're supposed to believe. But it's not true.

When our thinking starts with man and works its way to God, we are doomed to deception. We must instead start with God and work our way to man if we're to walk in the light. If we start with man we must contort God to fit into man's image. We must reinterpret God's word to conform to our true basis for truth, man. But if we start with God, and we see or read things in life and the scriptures that make us uncomfortable, we can then see the places in which we have work to do in conforming our own thinking to God's Word. Once we've done that; once we've lowered ourselves, and God is on the throne of our minds and hearts, we can more easily understand the things that the natural man cannot.  But best of all, it gives a true sense of the way things really are. It helps us to be a true light in a truly dark world, and it gives us confidence to say things, and live in a way that makes us stand out in a crowd and heard above the noise.

My nation is dying of malnutrition.  But His Church is not. My nation is starving to death for lack of truth. But His Church is not.  This nation is under God's judgement, and all that we are watching take place that makes the Church sick is His hand administering that judgement.  But His Body will stand strong. It is not in any danger of disappearing or being lost because its existence is not dependant on man.  We now live in a nation that helps a child pretend to be the opposite sex while ridiculing those who call such things child abuse. At the same time, there is an abundance of churches, preaching God's love, even for the child abuser. We live in a nation in which not only can a man "marry" another man, but such things are taught in public schools as good and righteous. But by the numbers, Christianity abounds.

It's well known among addicts that to fix a problem there must be an understanding that there is a problem. That there is a problem is not in question. For some, the problem is that not enough people understand that God loves them. I think that's a misdiagnosis. I think the real problem is that most are convinced that God does love them, just as they are. And so they have asked a question that modern evangelicalism can't seem to answer, which is, why change?

WE Will Decide What Is Fair And Just According To OUR Whims.

According to The Daily Caller, Drew Sterrett was a typical University Of Michigan college kid who did the typical college thing and participated in a little "hook up" action in his dorm room. If Drew had taken the time to study his Maker's position on such things he might have discovered a little insight:

Prov 5:3-6 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey And smoother than oil is her speech; 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol. 6 She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.

His actions later began to bear a little fruit that the abortion doctor couldn't crush and dismember. From the Daily Caller article:

Five months later, while at home in New York for summer break, the university informed him that she had filed a rape complaint against him, according to The Michigan Daily.

He was told that if he spent any time trying to find an attorney, the university would proceed without him. Later that day, he attended a hearing by Skype in which he denied any wrongdoing, according to The Detroit Free Press.

“At no point during the call/interview was [Sterrett] given notice of the specific allegations which had been made against him,” the lawsuit claimed.

The investigation was halted in September after Sterrett’s accuser expressed second thoughts about having the details of their encounter made public. Sterrett was left in the dark about this, though he was warned to stay away from Mosher-Jordan, the residence hall where his accuser lived.

Ultimately, the university proceeded to adjudicate the matter. Administrators eventually informed Sterrett that he was found guilty of raping his accuser and creating a “hostile environment” for her, and would be suspended until 2016.

While our current culture might seem to the unwise and naive to be a wonderland of sex and affluence, the truth is a different matter. That "wonderland" is filled with pits, misery and death. It's also filled with hypocrisy.

Liberalism And Islam

Someone else said this, but it bears repeating:

Islam perfectly concentrates everything liberals say is evil into a single ideology (male dominance, abuse of women, imperialism, violence, religious fundamentalism, intolerance of perversion, etc.), yet liberals side with Muslims reflexively, elevating them even above homosexuals to the top of their caste system.

Source:

http://moonbattery.com/?p=45023 

It's Raining Revelations

I was walking down a street in downtown Spokane on a misty day recently when I noticed a sign pointing down to the sidewalk.  The sign read: "weather report".  On the sidewalk was written "It's raining" with some sort of water repelling chemical. It was kind of cute I guess. The only time you can see the sign is when it's raining, as if it wasn't already obvious.

I am often reminded of that little sign in these days. I spotted an article today that reported yet someone else coming out of the closet on the gay marriage issue. This time it was the "front-man for the popular Christian band Jars of Clay", Dan Haseltine. These outings have ceased to be shocking or surprising. It seems in fact that they are precipitating out of the "Church" like rain.

But as this rain hits the real Church, that is the Christians whose worldview is informed by a serious view of scripture, it is repelled. The true Church is beginning to emerge as the fake church moves with culture into increased wickedness.  Persecution has begun, and it will increase because on the sidewalk of this world is written "You are not unaccountable", and the world and it's worldly "church" will do everything it can to scrub that message away.

Someone Else Comes Out Of The Closet... Kind Of

Watch, you'll see what I mean.

With A Nudge From Jesus Evangelical Minister Shows True Colors

The Title of this post is not exactly right. The title of the article in the Detroit Free Press actually reads "With A Nudge From Jesus, Evangelical Minister Supports Gay Marriage".  I for one am glad this wolf has taken off his sheep's clothing, and so should his congregants.  The question remains however, how many in his congregation are for the first time seeing the truth about the secualr humanism of their leader. My guess is that most of the orthodox believers probably left long ago, and that most of his congregation will remain and cheer. Just my guess.

To be sure, a "church" that looks to the zeitgeist and culture for truth will eventually have to deny the Truth of scripture. For years false teachers and the scriptures could shack up, but in these radical times this is becoming an increasingly untenable path.

An excerpt:

But about a dozen years ago, the founder and leader of Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor started to have some misgivings about his views.

Perspective is everything. This is a glowing article written to puff up this "pastor" and from the writer's perspective this pastor has finally seen the light of secular humanism, and that is a good thing.  He is no longer a bigot. But there is a different perspective, a biblical one. From that perspective the excerpt might be better stated:

But about a dozen years ago, the founder and leader of Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor started to have some misgivings about God's views.

Another excerpt:

It was a slow process, one that involved prayer, introspection and scholarship as he pored over the Bible and interpretations of it from various writers.

Imagine that, culture and secular humanism rejects scripture and embraces homosexuality as good and proper, then church men all of a sudden begin to figure out the truth about how wonderful homosexual "marriage" is after 2000 years of darkness. What a coincidence.

Experts say it might be the first time the pastor of a large evangelical Christian congregation in Michigan, and maybe the U.S., has come out so openly in favor of gay people and same-sex marriage.

One wonders what rock this writer must has been living under for the last decade. A great reason why being cited by a media person as an "expert" is not something you want to put on your resume.

The move comes at a time of intense debate in Michigan over gay marriage after a ruling two weeks ago by a federal judge in Detroit that legalized gay marriage, a ruling currently being appealed.

Go figure.  Not that it matters to this "pastor" what Jesus said, but he certainly doesn't have to worry about Jesus' words warning that to follow Him will mean persecution, especially if you're a CEO of a chicken restaurant or a large software company and agree with thousands of years of hisstory.

Anyway, this is old news really, with more "revelations" and outings to come sure as the world. But it does give me reason to make a few points.

1. This teacher did not become a false teacher overnight. My guess is that bit by bit he taught his apostasy to his congregation until it was safe to go where his heart already was...  out of the closet.

2. Much of the Church is apparently in an age of bankruptcy of discernment. Just because your pastor has not "come out of the closet" on this issue doesn't mean that his heart is still in the closet. The modern Christian must know scripture and see the world through that lens, then he will see these things long before they happen.

3. Matt 24:24 "[Jesus answered saying...] For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect." If we are not able to discern scripture, how will we avoid this deception?

4. The good news is that it is becoming very easy to spot many false teachers and apostates from a mile away. The Church of Christ looks nothing like we imagined it was even a quarter century ago. Then, this pastor's anti-biblical views would have not been nearly as discernible, nor would have his anti-biblical followers.

On Fearing God

A Facebook friend posts, probably once a week, a "word from god".  She writes as god in the first person as he tells us all the cool stuff he's going to be doing for us, and what we ought be doing, and the work he's doing behind the scenes to fix the things that are wrong.

I took a psychology class years ago in a Godless school taught by a Godless professor.  It was a small class, 6 of us to be exact.  On the first day of class the professor told us that he had a friend who could interpret handwriting.  He asked us to put our signature on a piece of paper and he would have it analyzed for us.  I was absent that day.

After much teasing with promises of "any day now", the analysis finally arrived toward the end of the semester.  He warned everyone that there would be personal revelations and to keep the reports "close to the chest".  As each one read their reports, except me because I was absent, I heard the people gasping at the incredible insight this professor had gained into their own person lives... simply by their signature.  "Wow!" I heard over here.  "I can't believe this!" I heard over there, "This guys been reading my mail!".

After a little bit, the professor asked if anyone would be willing to read their report aloud.  One brave soul volunteered and it truly was amazing.  Oh, not because the professor-handwriting analyst had had any real insight, but rather because he had had zero insight.  You see, the professor had a standard letter he always sent to everyone, so everyone got the same report.  The report was designed in such a vague way as to allow anyone to plug into it the particulars of their own lives.  Horoscopes are written in this same way.  Horoscopes are wicked.

When it comes to people prophesying, the first thing I think about is 1 Thess 5:19-22.  "Do not quench the Spirit;  do not despise prophetic utterances.  But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil."  I admit that I am a skeptic more times than not--a lot more in fact--for a few reasons, not the least of which is I fear God.  Yet still, I try to discern with charity... because of this scripture.

We live in an age in which there are many people running around saying things in the first Person, with a capital "P" on person, for God.  "I love you my child, I gave my Son for you, rise up and praise Me and I will do wonders in your life", and things such as that.  To me it sounds much more like the handwriting analysis than it does God, but who am I to question a "word from the Lord", even if it is nebulous and unprovable one way or the other.

More times than not however, I cringe for the person doing it.  They seem so comfortable speaking in God's stead.  There doesn't appear to be any fear and trembling; no, "what if this is my own idea and I've talked myself into believing that it isn't me at all but the very voice of God?".  If it were true, and a false prophecy is being prophesied, then I have every reason to fear for them.  God doesn't take kindly to mere men spouting off their own delusions and signing His name to it.  Just sayin'.

So... I took my concordance and looked up the word "fear".  It turned up about about 310 times in the NASU Bible.  There are other words that mean the same thing that didn't come up, like afraid, fears, terrified, and the like, so this is not an exhaustive study.  But what did turn up was enough to strike fear in us when it comes to the handling of... His words.

In my analysis, I created three buckets to throw each "fear" into.  The first bucket was the misc. bucket.  I put men fearing men, or the weather, or angels, and things like that into that bucket.  I wound up with 70ish "fear"s in that bucket.  The second bucket dealt with the fear of men, armies, circumstances and things like that, as in don't do it.  That bucket wound up with about 80ish uses, so we have 150 so far.  The third bucket dealt with fearing God as in direct commands "fear God", "The fear of the LORD", or in references to the unGodly not fearing God, and such.  That one wound up with 170ish uses.  (that totals 320 because I rounded everything to the nearest 10)

This theme was consistent throughout the Old and New Testaments, and the message is clear, and repeated over and over: Fear God.  But we live in a time in which men and nations do not fear God.  That's should not surprise us because the Man of God no longer preaches the fear of the LORD.  Or worse, men take it upon themselves to re-interpret the word to "reverence" or something more palatable to the hearts and minds of arrogant men.  It seems that these prechers might be a little ashamed of a God that commands His creation to fear Him.  A God that is to be feared doesn't sit well with the "he's my best friend and he's cool with me because I'm cool and I think he's cool" God that is popular today.

Now with a God like that it makes perfect sense to me that someone would run around speaking on his behalf.  After all, if you are spouting all kinds of nonsense and signing it with "thus saith the lord,  what's the big deal... God's cool with it.  Right?

Check out this video of a woman prophesying.  She was outed as a false prophet because... well she was proven wrong... right there.  One minute she was prophesying that he was anointed of God, and the next she was calling him a devil.  Whatever the case was, one thing was for sure,  she was obviously not hearing from God, and she ought to have repented in trembling and fear for assuming to speak for the Almighty.  And then she should have chosen  a safer profession.   I don't think she has.  After all, what does she have to fear?

Solid, Meet Solid

We get the parable of the two men building their houses in the Sermon On The Mount.  One of the men, so the story goes, built his house on something solid and the other on sands that shift to and fro.  As is clear to the most knuckly of heads, the to and fro stuff doesn't lend itself well to structures that gain all of their strength from the foundation.

Interestingly enough, that story begins with the word "therefore", which, as we know, ought to direct our attention to the previous passage to get to the foundation, if you will, for that particular passage. Well the previous passage, is Matthew 7:21 which ought to strike eternal fear into the hearts of all mortals. It goes like this: "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?'"And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'

It seems to be a common practice in our bizarre times to get this parable completely backwards in practice. In this age it is suggested that we build our house then judge the credibility of the ground by the house. As a result, when things start shifting around we end up judging the ground according to what we built. This is why something that was seen as an abomination in the past can be seen as good and righteous in the present, and vice versa. And since our point of reference is the four walls of man's wisdom we are perfectly comfortable with that reference point even though our house is now floating down the river, destination unknown.

In a house such as this God's Word is judged by culture. When we read that God wants wives to phobio their husbands in a culture dominated by feminism, we wonder if perhaps God didn't properly understand the value and worth of women as leaders in the home.  When we read in the midst of a sex-obsessed culture to not be deceived... fornicators... will not inherit the Kingdom of God, we look around at the four walls of man's wisdom and sovereignty that represents our "house" and question God's wisdom and sovereignty.

In reality, this parable paints a picture of a joint effort. It provides a starting place, which is the Word of God, and based on that solid and unchanging foundation we apply our effort by putting into practice God's Word and end up with a parabolic house. As the storms then rage outside, and the meaning of up and down begin to fall into question, we are safe as we rest in our stable abodes in faith that just beyond the precipice of eternity we will not have to hear those dreaded words "depart from me, you who practice lawlessness".

Careful With The Cure-All Antidotes

"...the state is a poison that masquerades as its own antidote."

From Blog and Mablog