You either come to God for forgiveness and salvation based on what the Savior Jesus did on the Cross, or you’re going to come under divine judgment and come to Jesus as your Judge. Which will it be? Carl
Category: Communism
Unconventional But It Worked
The following is a true story as told to me by my son-in-law who is a North American Mission Board missionary. Only the names have been changed.
While talking with a pastor friend, the pastor related how Young Man had just asked Jesus Christ into his heart, been born again, and joined the church. The pastor was concerned because Young Man had a lot of zeal but lacked knowledge on how to be a witness to his friends. He was afraid he would turn people away from Christ instead of drawing them to Him.
Meanwhile, Young Man was out witnessing to his friends about their need for a Saviour to escape Hell. He carried a cigarette lighter in his pocket. He witnessed to his friend Tim by grabbing Tim’s arm and putting the cigarette lighter underneath his forearm and apply the flame to the skin. You can imagine Tim’s surprise as he jerked his arm away from the flame.
The next Sunday, the pastor runs into Young Man before church and Young Man tells him how he had witnessed to Tim, his friend, with the cigarette lighter. The pastor realizing that he was right about the Young Man, says to the Young Man, ” I have to talk to Tim right after the service. Where can I find him?”
The Young Man says, “Oh, Tim is seated in the church, he wants to be baptized.”
Tim had received his friend’s unconventional witness concerning his need to have his sin washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ so he could escape the justly deserved flames of Hell. In other words, Tim was born again and wanted to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism to testify to the world that he had been born again.
Do you need the flame of a cigarette lighter applied to your arm to get your attention?
The New Testament warns us there is coming a day “when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed –for our testimony to you was believed.” II Thessalonians 1:7-10
Today is the day to believe on the Lord Jesus and what He has done for you at the Cross by shedding His precious blood so your sins could be covered. Do not put it off.
Carl
World’s Greatest Problem
THE WORLD’S GREATEST PROBLEM IS LOSTNESS.
Today, over 3,000 people groups have no missionary presence and likely have no access to the Good News of Jesus Christ.
The lack of accurate knowledge about God’s saving grace is not limited to just these distant groups. You and I are surrounded by THE LOST every day regardless of what nation we live in.
Fellow Christian, what are you doing to fulfill the Lord’s commandment to:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you…” (Matthew 28: 18-20)
Do Something. Please!
Carl
Red China: The Body of Christ and The Political Situation
Source: Asia Harvest Newsletter
(Dear Reader: This ministry was recommended to us by a friend who served in Communist China for years and it is worthy of your support. May God bless you and the church in China. Carl)
This newsletter shares insights into the current situation in China, both politically and for the Body of Christ. In addition to our standard newsletter, we want to share links to articles and videos that give further context into some of the claims we have made.
For those who are serious about learning more of the situation in China today, please click on this link to go to a page with a list of links to extra resources on the situation in China.
Please note we have selected just a few of the most interesting and helpful pages out of hundreds that are available online. Pages from other websites should open in separate windows on your browser.
President Xi Jinping and His Role in the World
“How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant? They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting. They crush your people, Lord; they oppress your inheritance….
Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge? The Lord knows all human plans; he knows that they are futile.” – Psalm 94:3-5, 10-11
OVER THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS many people from around the world have asked us to help them understand what’s going on in China.
Many Christians are shocked, because for years all they heard was how revival was bringing millions of Chinese into God’s kingdom.
Suddenly, all news from the Church in China stopped in its tracks, as a new Emperor, Xi Jinping, caused the Body of Christ to adopt a defensive posture.
Who is this man who has “purged” (i.e., killed or imprisoned)
hundreds of thousands of people, and who has created such a
stench across Asia that 20 neighboring countries — from Central
Asia to India and the Philippines — now have disputes with China.
Let’s take a closer look at this man who has so enlarged the Chinese military and covert influence that a World War seems inevitable if things continue on their present trajectory.
We deliberately used the term “Emperor” to describe Xi Jinping. While technically he is the atheistic head of the Chinese Communist Party, for thousands of years China was ruled by Emperors whose authority was absolute.
There were no elections, debates, or protests against emperors. Any perceived hesitancy to obey an emperor’s edict was met with swift and severe punishment. In there paranoia, many Chinese emperors killed millions of their subjects to consolidate their power.
Although emperors have not officially ruled China since 1912, in reality Communist leaders like Mao and Xi have been emperors in all but name. It is important to understand that Chinese emperors were never viewed merely as leaders of China.
You may know that the Chinese name for their country, Zhong Guo, means “Middle Kingdom.” The belief that their country is the center of the world is deeply ingrained in the hearts and minds of every Chinese generation.
Emperors are believed to have a “Mandate of Heaven,” by which they receive the authority to rule. This philosophy, which dates back 2,500 years, assumes that because there is only one heaven, there can only be one emperor and one state with legitimacy in the whole world.
Over the years we have frequently met Chinese from all walks of life who are glad and proud that China is now throwing its weight around in the world. From taxi drivers in Singapore to businessmen in San Francisco, countless Chinese believe that now is the time for China to rise up and seize its destiny as world leader—economically, culturally, and militarily. It
is not so much a desire as a statement of fact. Even among Chinese Christians we have met few who would ever dare to openly criticize Xi Jinping or his decisions. After all, he is the emperor, appointed by heaven itself. Opponents are seen as evildoers and are mercilessly crushed. Just ask people in Hong Kong how life has changed since Xi came to power.
The Mandate of Heaven philosophy spread to many parts of East Asia in the centuries before Christ. It explains why countries like North Korea have been unable to throw off its heavy yoke of rule by the Kim family for so long, Japanese emperors were also seen as heaven-
sent leaders who were invincible because of the Mandate of Heaven. The Japanese belief of invincibility abruptly ended when two atomic bombs fell on Japan in 1945.
In 2016, we began to report that a major shift was happening in China, and the new dynamic would change the way Christians function in China, while the country itself would become a huge threat to democracies.
China decided it was time to throw off its “Century of humiliation” at the hands of foreign powers and take its rightful place as leader of the world, with Xi Jinping on the throne.
A Prediction…
WE DO NOT BELIEVE THE RISE OF CHINA will lead to world domination.
“Emperor” Xi’s harsh authoritarian rule, as he has consolidated absolute power in China and made enemies all around Asia and the world, has not been working out too well.
The economy in China is in tatters (far worse than reports in Western media), and a growing number of Chinese are beginning to quietly question if their leader is taking the country on a path that will end well for them.
Many nations now see China as the number one threat
to global security and Xi’s aggressive stance has brought about the formation of military alliances to counter his plans.
It has been said that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Strongmen like Xi Jinping believe they operate with impunity, as it is their birthright. Above all else, the thing they desire most is regime survival.
For that reason, Xi constantly purges his leaders, isolating himself more and more while at the same time changing the constitution to guarantee he will never be replaced. Emperors of China were never changed. They ruled for life.
Do we think that Xi and the Chinese Communist Party will reach their goals of world domination?
No, for the following SEVEN REASONS:
1 GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY.
We believe it is not a coincidence that as soon as China launched its campaign to systematically destroy Christianity in 2016-17, their economy began to disintegrate. Ultimately, the battle for the 1.4 billion souls of China is what is at stake.
The Lord Jesus Christ has purchased a pure bride numbering over 100 million believers in China. They are the apple of His eye, and He will not stand by and let His precious inheritance be decimated.
2 THE DEMOGRAPHICS FOR CHINA ARE A NIGHTMARE.
With a rapidly ageing population and a lack of young people of tax-paying age to pay for Xi’s military expansion, things are likely to stagnate and deteriorate in China.
Some economists estimate that China needs 400 million more people of working age to keep its economy going forward and fund their military aspirations, but they have “sown the wind and reaped the whirlwind.” (Hosea 8:7)
The Communist Party’s one-child policy, accompanied by hundreds of millions of forced abortions, has wiped out a generation of Chinese. The very people they need to pay for their plans don’t exist. They were sacrificed on the altar of the Communist Party death cult.
3 THE POPULATION OF CHINA IS ALREADY IN RAPID DECLINE
with some provinces shrinking by millions of people each year. Some experts calculate that by the end of this century the population of China may be half of what it is now. Two years ago, it was hardly noticed when the government lowered the national population by 121 million from previous inflated figures.
An increasing number of young people in China today have no desire to have children, which are considered an economic inconvenience. That unnatural instinct has been suppressed by generations of Marxist propaganda that work and money—not faith in God and a loving family—are the keys to happiness.
4 STRETCHED TO BREAKING POINT.
Xi’s reign has been greatly helped by his access to technology that previous rulers like Mao Zedong could never have dreamed of.
A friend who recently returned from his first visit to China in several years was shocked at the changes he experienced. He said:
“Everywhere I experienced anti-foreign sentiment from unfriendly people, and I saw many people paying for things with their faces. By allowing their faces to be scanned, payments are deducted directly from their accounts. No phone or bank card is needed, and cash is practically unheard of.”
With more than 400 million facial recognition cameras watching and evaluating their every move, and Xi demanding complete obedience to the Marxist-socialist agenda, many people feel stretched to breaking point and are increasingly fed up with the system.
5 XI HAS TRIED TO REPLACE GOD WITH A CULT OF HIMSELF.
He wants to be all-seeing, all- knowing, and all-powerful. He has erected giant billboards and posters of his face (like the one on the cover of this newsletter) and he demands unwavering devotion and commitment to his cause. In tens of thousands of churches across China, crosses and Scripture verses have been forcibly removed and replaced with posters of Xi and Mao, or with Chinese flags.
The Chinese Communist Party always claims there is no God, while setting themselves up as gods who must be obeyed and worshipped at all times.
Interestingly, in churches where posters of the Ten Commandments were displayed, instead of the authorities removing them they just scratched out the first commandment that says: “You shall have no other gods before me.”
They didn’t object to any of the other nine commandments, but only the first one upset them. Why? Because like Satan, they desire to fill the role of God in people’s lives.
6 A GENERAL MALAISE HAS COME UPON THE YOUTH OF CHINA.
After studying hard all their lives, tens of millions of university graduates can’t find any work at all, and a new expression, tang ping, or “lying down flat” swept over many Chinese young people.
Countless millions have lost the desire to excel, and they now see life as meaningless.
More recently, during Xi’s harsh Covid restrictions, tang ping has been replaced by a new catch-phrase: bai lan, meaning “let it rot.” These developments refer to a voluntary retreat from pursuing goals and will expediate decay in Chinese society and the economy.
7 XI JINPING SEEMS TO HAVE A PERSONAL HATRED FOR CHRISTIANITY.
After systematically expelling almost all foreign Christians from China over the past 6 or 7 years, a widespread persecution has afflicted God’s people in every part of the nation, but especially in the border provinces.
The Communist Party has even been working on a new Bible, removing passages they don’t like, and replacing them with socialist teachings.
One proposed change is the story of the woman at the well. The Communist Party didn’t like that she was forgiven, so they are reportedly changing it.
So instead of Jesus telling her, “Go and sin no more,” the new Communist Bible has Jesus picking up a stone and stoning her to death! Let’s see if God will allow such blatant blasphemy and corruption of His holy Word to go unpunished.
The Second Coming of Jesus to The Earth
Part Two – The Second Advent of Jesus, The Messiah
Lord Jesus’ SECOND ADVENT is when He physically returns to the Earth again. In light of the turmoil in the Middle East today, I thought we should republish this post.
In the larger scheme of end time prophecy, His return is at the end of the seven years of tribulations when the Antichrist will be defeated and destroyed.
JESUS IN HIS HOME SYNAGOGUE
When Lord Jesus read part of Isaiah 61 to announce that that He was the Messiah, He stopped halfway through verse 2 where it says “to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” and did not read the second half of the verse which says,
“And the day of vengeance of our God…” Isaiah 61:2b
If He had read the second part He could not have said, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Because the second part has to do with His return to Earth as a Warrior King-Priest to reveal Himself to Israel, purify Israel and save Israel from the armies of all the nations of the Earth who will try to destroy her.
In God the Father’s plan, this day of vengeance had not arrived when Jesus was speaking in His hometown synagogue around 30 AD. By reading verse 2 and 3 we see what His Second Advent involves:
“The SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, FOR HE ANOINTED ME…TO PROCLAIM..
“…the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,
To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.” Isaiah 61:2b-3
This section of Scripture reveals a SECOND ADVENT and reveals the specialized task the Messiah, Jesus, will perform as Warrior King-Priest:
- …to proclaim…the day of vengeance of our God
- …to comfort all who mourn… in Zion
- …giving a garland instead of ashes
- …giving the oil of gladness instead of mourning
- …giving a mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting
- He will make the people of Israel into oaks of righteousness
- He will cause glory to rebound unto God, by the changes in the people of Israel.
The specialized task deal with two things: the day of vengeance and the salvation of Israel physically and spiritually. This is after the church has been raptured and at the end of Antichrist’s rule.
FIRST TASK – MINISTER TO THOSE WHO ARE MOURNING
The setting is the end of the seven years of tribulation and the Battle of Armageddon is ongoing. Armies from all the nations of the earth are besieging and close to overwhelming the defenders of Jerusalem. Some of Israel has fled to the wilderness (Petra), some have been killed by the invading armies and some are besieged in Jerusalem. Zechariah 13: 9 tell us that two-thirds of the people in Israel will die during this time but much of the Jewish population will have already fled to the safety of the wilderness. The one-third remaining in Israel will be refined or purified by the Lord.
It is my understanding that at that point in the battle, Jesus will physically set His feet on the Mount of Olives coming to help Israel and will reveal Himself to Israel. They will understand that He was their Messiah all along. This is why the Messiah’s specialized tasks mention mourning, ashes, and fainting. Listen:
Zechariah 12:9-14 NASBS
[9] And in that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. [10] “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. [11] In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. [12] The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; [13] the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; [14] all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.
And again:
Ezekiel 20:43-44 NASBS
[43] There you will remember your ways and all your deeds with which you have defiled yourselves; and you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done. [44] Then you will know that I am the LORD when I have dealt with you for My name’s sake, not according to your evil ways or according to your corrupt deeds, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.'”
Concerning those who have fled to the wilderness:
Ezekiel 20:33-38 NASBS
[33] “As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. [34] I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; [35] and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. [36] As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord GOD. [37] “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; [38] and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the LORD.
Can you imagine what it will be like for the Jewish people to realize that Jesus of Nazareth was their Messiah all along? To realize that all the judgements that they as a people had endured over 2000 years could have been avoided. Is it any wonder that Ezekiel 20:43 says speaking about the Jewish people who realize this, “you will loathe yourselves in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done.” The shock of the realization and then the remembering of all they had done individually and nationally. It will be a time of “being stunned” by what is being revealed to each individual.
But…now we see the reason that the Messiah will comfort all who mourn in Zion, giving a garland instead of ashes and a mantle of praise for the spirit of fainting! Though this realization that Jesus is the Messiah will happen to the remaining nation, it is through personal repentance and faith in Jesus the Messiah that the Jewish remnant will be born again. That is what “…by themselves…” in Zechariah 12:12-14 means.
It will be a glorious transformation of Israel that will rebound to God’s glory.
Ezekiel 39:25-29 describes this time:
[25] Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name. [26] They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they perpetrated against Me, when they live securely on their own land with no one to make them afraid. [27] When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified through them in the sight of the many nations. [28] Then they will know that I am the LORD their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. [29] I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.
Isaiah 61: 4-9 describes what the Lord will do for Israel after they acknowledge Him and repent of their sins:
[4] Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, They will raise up the former devastations; And they will repair the ruined cities, The desolations of many generations. [5] Strangers will stand and pasture your flocks, And foreigners will be your farmers and your vinedressers. [6] But you will be called the priests of the LORD; You will be spoken of as ministers of our God. You will eat the wealth of nations, And in their riches you will boast. [7] Instead of your shame you will have a double portion, And instead of humiliation they will shout for joy over their portion. Therefore they will possess a double portion in their land, Everlasting joy will be theirs. [8] For I, the LORD, love justice, I hate robbery in the burnt offering; And I will faithfully give them their recompense And make an everlasting covenant with them. [9] Then their offspring will be known among the nations, And their descendants in the midst of the peoples. All who see them will recognize them Because they are the offspring whom the LORD has blessed.
PROCLAIMING THE DAY OF VENGEANCE – THE SECOND TASK
The second task of Jesus during His second advent is to proclaim the day of vengeance. To understand this let us begin with Isaiah 63: 1-6 which is a picture of Lord Jesus on this day. Note what Lord Jesus says in verse 4.
Isaiah 63:1-6
[1] Who is this who comes from Edom (modern day Jordan)
With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah (Petra),
This One who is majestic in His apparel,
Marching in the greatness of His strength?
“It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.”
[2] Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?
[3] “I have trodden the wine trough alone,
And from the peoples there was no man with Me.
I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath;
And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments,
And I stained all My raiment.
[4] “For the day of vengeance was in My heart,
And My year of redemption has come.
[5] “I looked, and there was no one to help,
And I was astonished and there was no one to uphold;
So My own arm brought salvation to Me,
And My wrath upheld Me.
[6] “I trod down the peoples in My anger
And made them drunk in My wrath,
And I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
(Clarification added)
Did you notice in verse 4 that Jesus said the day of vengeance was in My heart? Remember in Isaiah 61:2b the Messiah would proclaim the day of vengeance? Here we have Jesus The Messiah proclaiming this when He physically comes to Earth to destroy all the armies intent on wiping out Israel and the Jewish people.
After the day of vengeance is finished, Lord Jesus will establish His earthly kingdom in Jerusalem for a thousand years. The new temple described in Zechariah will be built and from there He will rule all nations. Isaiah 61: 10-11 describes the Lord Jesus at this time:
Isaiah 61:10-11
[10] I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. [11] For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
JUDGE – THE FINAL TASK OF THE MESSIAH
After the thousand years, the Great White Throne judgment will occur. Read Revelation 20: 11-15.
All the dead who rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior will appear before the One whom God the Father appointed Judge of all mankind, Jesus Christ Himself (Acts 17:31). The book of life will be opened and the books containing the deeds of each individual will be opened. The people will be judged according to their deeds written in the books. Those who have rejected Lord Jesus as Lord and Savior causing their name NOT to be written in the book of life will be thrown into the place prepared for the devil and his angels forever (Matthew 25:41), the lake of fire.
The followers of Jesus Christ will inherit a new heaven and earth where they will dwell forever. Read Revelation 21: 9-22:7.
Dear Reader, where will you go? Will you be thrown in the lake of fire or enjoy eternity in the presence of Jesus in the new heaven and earth? You must decide this side of death. Follow Jesus…you will not regret it!!
In two different post we have discussed the two appearances of the Lord Jesus on Earth and the difference of each. We are in the first advent and the second advent is steadily approaching.
Even so, Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20)
Carl
“The Bible Is a Dirty Book”: Unbelief and Hatred for the God of the Bible
KASPARS OZOLINS
This month, Loren Seibold, editor of Adventist Today, wrote a provocatively titled piece: “The Bible Is a Dirty Book: …which also contains the words of eternal life.” This title, while clearly intended to grab attention, in no way exaggerates the author’s true feelings toward Scripture. For as I read it, I was taken aback by the content no less than I was shocked by the title. Thus it is that the formerly feigned reverence for the Word of God by progressive Adventists gives way to unveiled contempt.
Seibold’s article gives some initial examples of explicit wording and sexually graphic content from Scripture, before moving on to his real objection to the Bible (what he calls “the worst pornography”): its graphic violence. Particularly objectionable to the author is the fact that God is portrayed as commanding the Israelites to slaughter their enemies, seemingly indiscriminately. Seibold cites Deuteronomy 20:16–18 as an example (in the outdated KJV for maximum effect):
But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth: But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath commanded thee…
The three dots at the end of the quotation conceal the entirety of verse 18. This was probably done by Seibold in order to make God’s command appear as unreasonable and offensive to modern ears as possible. The inhabitants of these cities were decreed by God for destruction “that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the LORD your God” (v. 18). Sin is deadly, and a deadly serious matter, at that. But that’s not at all how a modern religious person would view these things.
Seibold is equally incensed at another passage, Numbers 31:17–18:
Now therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man by lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man by lying with him keep alive for yourselves.
His response is incredulous, outraged, and mocking: “Seriously? God said you should ‘keep the little girls alive for yourselves’? Since their virginity is particularly noted—uh, what exactly did God intend you to do with them?” Seibold completely leaves out the entire context of Numbers 31, namely that it was commanded as a response to the Midianites’ incitement to sexual sin and spiritual adultery at Baal Peor (Numbers 25).
God did not command the Israelites to keep alive little girls for the perverse satisfaction of Israelite men.
God did not command the Israelites to keep alive little girls for the perverse satisfaction of Israelite men. Instead, this passage protects the innocent Midianite women who had not participated in this horrific sin against the Israelites. However, it seems that Seibold does not care about these details, but is instead trying to drive home his point: The Bible is a dirty book.
A Christian attitude toward Scripture
I routinely tell my students in class that it is right for believers to wrestle with challenging issues in Scripture, such as the highly controversial “Canaanite genocide” issue. When we read the text faithfully and contextually, good solutions often present themselves, as shown above. But even when we may not get the full picture, or when the solution is not as satisfactory as we might wish, the Bible’s inner theological coherence keeps us grounded.
I routinely tell my students in class that it is right for believers to wrestle with challenging issues in Scripture, such as the highly controversial “Canaanite genocide” issue.
God is the author of all life. God gives life, and takes life. God has the right and prerogative, as Creator, to take human life (especially in a context of human sin and rebellion). Furthermore, God has the right to use human instruments as a chosen vehicle of divine justice. Governments are charged with carrying out God’s judgment, for example (Rom 13:4). So the difference between vigilante vengeance and legitimate justice is partly due to whether or not God has authorized a particular agent (such as the Israelites) to carry out his judgment.
Noted Old Testament scholar Tremper Longman helpfully describes some of what is going on in these difficult narratives: “We should not be amazed that God ordered the death of the Canaanites, but rather we should stand in amazement that he lets anyone live. The Conquest [of Canaan] involves the intrusion of the ethics of the end times, the consummation, into the period of common grace. In a sense, the destruction of the Canaanites is a preview of the final judgment.” Notice that the Israelite conquest represents something out of the ordinary. But sooner or later, judgment will come to all sinners, hence our dire need for the gospel. Listen to the sobering words of the Lord Jesus, in response to the crowds who told him about a horrible thing that Pilate had done to some Galileans (Luke 13:2–5):
Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
One day God will set to right every injustice. But that includes the injustice of every sinner, both great and small. That is why these stories about God’s righteous judgment being executed in this life ought to fill us with wonder at the gospel. They ought to make us love the Savior who bore our own judgment in his body so that not one drop of condemnation would fall upon those who believe.
This is what I mean by a Christian attitude toward Scripture. It is fine to have unresolved questions, to seek answers from the text, to wrestle with Scripture. But it is never right for a Christian to question Scripture’s trustworthiness or its goodness, because to do so is to question the trustworthiness and goodness of its Author. There is a very particular attitude toward Scripture which God has promised to honor: “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my Word” (Isa 66:2).
An unbelieving attitude toward Scripture
If you dig down deep enough (though it is perhaps surprising to some), one key aspect of false religion and unbiblical worldviews is an unmistakable hatred for the God of the Bible and for what the God of the Bible has said in his Word. I said “dig down” because sometimes this reality is hard to uncover, though it truly is there. Some individuals, after reading Seibold’s article, might counter that he doesn’t really hate God, only that he has misunderstood what the Bible actually claims about God and his interactions with human beings.
While I do think Seibold has twisted the sense of some of the passages he cites in his article, he seems to have a much bigger and fundamental issue with the Bible than merely the odd verse. Listen to his fairly clear evaluation of Scripture:
Someone is going to say here, “You’re trashing the Bible.” No, I’m trashing one very bad way of reading it. The Bible contains the words of eternal life, but not every word in the Bible is a word of eternal life. Much of it is terribly hard to understand—but even when understood, there’s a surfeit of really bad theology, a horrible lack of respect for human life, and much that is utterly irrelevant to spiritual growth. In its pages some great “holy men of God” did convey to us the astonishing love of God and God’s desire to save us. But it appears some of the words in the Old Testament and Revelation were written by angry, vengeful men—or, in Ezekiel’s case, possibly even mentally ill men.
Things are even further clarified when one pays careful attention to the author’s use of pronouns throughout the article:
- “[this] surely isn’t inspired by my God”
- “a God worthy of our worship has to be better than the god [sic] pictured in Numbers 31:17-18.”
- “our God isn’t always accurately depicted in the book that was written about him.”
Those are fairly shocking admissions. Sometimes Seibold seems to even move past the idea of the God of the Bible merely being a literary invention of its authors: “Undoubtedly some angry person thought God felt that way, but I’d want nothing to do with a God who actually thought that was a good idea [emphasis added].” And again: “It is impossible for me to believe that God insisted on so much violence—and if God did, that’s not a God I can worship or regard as holy in any way [emphasis added].”
If Seibold hates the God of Scripture, just what sort of God does he profess to worship? What are his criteria for sorting through those parts of this “dirty book” he can accept?
If Seibold hates the God of Scripture, just what sort of God does he profess to worship? What are his criteria for sorting through those parts of this “dirty book” he can accept? His instructions at the end begin with a summary statement: “[T]o be a holy and godly person takes more than just following the Bible.” Ultimately, he claims “we Christians must read it through the lens of Jesus.” In fact, Seibold explicitly sets up a sharp contrast between Jesus and the God of the Old Testament:
When Jesus said, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father,” he was correcting the Old Testament. He was illustrating, by his life, that that picture of God was erroneous. That’s why he didn’t say, “If you’ve seen what the Father did in the Old Testament, well, that’s what I’m like.” Because he wasn’t.
Nevertheless, even Jesus can be a fallible guide to what Seibold’s God is like. For among his illustrations of the Bible as a “dirty book” is even a passage from the New Testament (Revelation 19:19–21). This prompts him to lament: “The New Testament, which introduces us to the wonderful figure of Jesus, is not entirely free of taint in this regard either.”
Ultimately, the only fully reliable guide to what Loren Seibold’s God is like is Seibold himself (along with his like-minded Adventist friends). The technical term for this mode of thinking is idolatry.
The Doctrine of Scripture and the Doctrine of God
The rejection of the trustworthiness of Scripture is not peculiar to progressive Adventism, but lies at the very heart of the entire movement, as its prophetess acknowledges:
The Bible is written by inspired men, but it is not God’s mode of thought and expression. It is that of humanity. God, as a writer, is not represented. Men will often say such an expression is not like God. But God has not put Himself in words, in logic, in rhetoric, on trial in the Bible. The writers of the Bible were God’s penmen, not His pen. Look at the different writers (Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 225).
Adventists can (and do) make adamant claims about Ellen G. White’s high view of Scripture, as did GC President Arthur Daniells, at her funeral in 1915: “No Christian teacher in this generation, no religious reformer in any preceding age, has placed a higher value upon the Bible.” But White’s teaching of “thought inspiration” is not an isolated phenomenon. It is fundamentally linked to her vast universe of writings that present an alternative worldview (the Great Controversy), an alternative god (“the three great worthies”), and an alternative salvation (the Three Angels’ messages).
The more fundamental reality of false religious systems is not their faulty doctrine of Scripture. It is their faulty doctrine of God.
The more fundamental reality of false religious systems is not their faulty doctrine of Scripture. It is their faulty doctrine of God. And at the very heart of a faulty doctrine of God is a rejection and hatred of the God of the Bible. As Calvin famously stated: “When the Bible speaks, God speaks.”
To reject the words of the Bible is not merely to claim to have a different hermeneutic; it is to reject the God of the Bible Himself. †
Kaspars Ozolins was born in Latvia to an Adventist family. They moved to Los Angeles where Kaspars attended Adventist elementary and high schools in Glendale, California, and his father was an Adventist pastor. He met Ieva, his wife, while studying in Latvia before pursuing a doctorate at UCLA in historical linguistics. After Kaspars completed an M. Div. at The Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley, California, he served as a research associate at Tyndale House in Old Testament and the Ancient Near East. He is now on the faculty at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as Assistant Professor of Old Testament Interpretation.
Martin Luther: God Hater to God Lover
Martin Luther was one of the famous Reformers in the Protestant Reformation. He unknowingly started the Reformation on October 31, 1517.
There was a time in his life when he confessed:
“I actually hated the righteous God who punishes sinners…”
In 1505 he became a Roman Catholic monk by entering a monastery at Erfurt in Saxony Germany. In 1533 he described his life as a monk:
“I was indeed a pious monk and kept the rules of my order so strictly that I can say: “If ever a monk gained heaven through monkery, it should have been I. All my monastic brethren who knew me will testify to this. I would have martyred myself to death with fasting, praying, reading, and other good works had I remained a monk much longer.”
Luther was a very pious, moral, Roman Catholic monk trying to work his way to heaven. A heaven which is ruled by a righteous God who he confessed hating.
Why did Luther hate God? At the root of it was his ignorance. Apostle Paul writing about the unbelieving Gentiles says they are “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in” them (Ephesians 4:17-18). Such was Luther’s case. The following explains, in his own words, what happened:
“Meanwhile, that same year I had again turned to the exposition of the Psalter, confident that after the academic treatment of the Epistles of St. Paul to the Romans and Galatians and the Epistle of the Hebrews I was better trained. Certainly, I had been possessed by an unusually ardent desire to understand Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. Nevertheless, in spite of the ardour of my heart I was hindered by the unique word in the first chapter: ‘The righteousness of God is revealed in it.’ I hated that word ‘righteousness of God’, because in accordance with the usage and custom of the doctors I had been taught to understand it philosophically as meaning, as they put it, the formal or active righteousness according to which God is righteous and punishes sinners and the unjust.”
“As a monk I led an irreproachable life. Nevertheless, I felt that I was a sinner before God. My conscience was restless, and I could not depend on God being propitiated by my satisfactions [good works]. Not only did I not love, but I actually hated the righteous God who punishes sinners…. Thus a furious battle raged within my perplexed conscience, but meanwhile I was knocking at the door of this particular Pauline passage, earnestly seeking to know the mind of the great Apostle.”
“Day and night I tried to meditate upon the significance of these words: ‘The righteousness of God is revealed in it, as it is written: The righteous shall live by faith.’ Then, finally, God had mercy on me, and I began to understand that the righteousness of God is that gift of God by which a righteous man lives, namely, faith and that this sentence -The righteousness of God is revealed in the Gospel – is passive, indicating that the merciful God justifies us by faith, as it is written: ’The righteous shall live by faith.’ Now I felt as though I had been reborn altogether and had entered Paradise. In the same moment the face of the whole of scripture became apparent to me. My mind ran through the scriptures, as far as I was able to recollect them, seeking analogies in other phrases, such as the work of God, by which he makes us strong, the wisdom of God, by which he makes us wise, the strength of God, the salvation of God, the glory of God.”
“Just as intensely as I had before hated the expression ‘the righteousness of God’, I now lovingly praised this most pleasant word. This passage from Paul became to me the very gate to Paradise.”*
In another place Luther writes about this experience,
“At first whenever I read or sang the Psalm: ‘Deliver me in thy righteousness’, I was frightened, and I hated the words ‘the righteousness of God’ and ‘the work of God’, for I believed that the righteousness of God meant his severe judgment. Were he to save me accordingly, I should be damned for ever. But the words ‘the mercy of God’ and ‘the help of God’ I liked better. Thanks to God, when I understood the matter and learned that the righteousness of God means that righteousness by which he justifies us, the righteousness bestowed as a free gift in Jesus Christ, the grammar became clear and the Psalter more to my taste.”*
And in one last place he writes,
“These words ‘righteous’ and ‘righteousness of God’ struck my conscience as flashes of lightning, frightening me each time I heard them: if God is righteous, he punishes. But by the grace of God, as I once mediated upon these words in this tower and heated room: The righteous shall live by faith’ and the ‘righteousness of God’, there suddenly came into my mind the thought that if we as righteous are to live by faith, and if the righteousness of faith is to be for salvation to everyone who believes, then it is not our merit , but the mercy of God. Thus my soul was refreshed, for it is the righteous of God by which we are justified and saved through Christ. These words became more pleasant to me. Through this word the Holy Spirit enlightened me in the tower.”*
As we can read, Luther goes from a ‘God hater’ to a ‘God lover’ once he is no longer ignorant of the following verse:
‘For in it [the gospel] is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.’ (Romans 1:17)
Martin was no longer “excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in” him. By the Lord’s revelation to him, Martin went from being a lost Roman Catholic monk seeking to be saved by his good works to a person who was saved by God’s grace by faith ALONE. He says this truth ‘became to me the very gate to Paradise’. Now he could participate in the life of God with a clear conscience knowing that his sins were forgiven in Christ. He realized his good works amounted to nothing when it came to being saved from the guilt and penalty of his sin.
All of his anger and hate toward God was due to not properly understanding God’s ‘righteousness’. The Roman Catholic doctors who had taught Luther only understood one side of the ‘righteousness’ coin. In His heart Luther knew he was a sinner and he had been taught that this “righteousness” was responsible for God punishing sinners and the unjust. And he said he hated this righteous God because of this.
Unfortunately, Luther’s teachers had received an unbiblical, false work-based salvation from their Roman Catholic ancestors and could not teach Luther the other side of the “righteous” coin. This being that when sinners place their faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross ALONE for salvation, this very righteousness is imputed or credited to their account and thereby they stand before God legally as if they had never sinned. All because of what Jesus Christ did and they are now in Him through their faith and God’s grace.
His teachers did not believe this.
The believer becomes the ‘righteousness of God’ in-Christ Jesus (II Corinthian 5:21). All of God’s moral excellence and virtue is imputed or credited to the believing sinner’s account. Hallelujah!
What about you?
Is your ignorance about God hindering your relationship with Him?
Do you have a clear conscience before Him or in your heart of hearts you know something is not right, maybe very, very wrong.
Have you ever checked God and Jesus Christ out by reading the New Testament yourself? If not, I encourage you to do so.
If your relationship with the God of the Holy Bible needs a correction or is non-existent, I pray that you will not rest until you are at peace with God the Father through Jesus Christ alone.
“The Lord … is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (Peter – II Peter 3: 9)
Carl
* Martin Luther quotes from Hans Hillerbrand, Editor, The Reformation – A Narrative History Related by Contemporary Observers And Participants (Baker Book House, 1972) pp. 27-28
Conversation With a Truth Seeker
As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by the craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ….. (Ephesians 4: 14-15)
It is a blessed thing to see Christians who are builded up by the spirit of God and accordance with the truth. But so many always seemed to be running after some new thing, never seeming to have any discrimination. Let me give you an absurd case.
Years ago as I sat in my office in Oakland there came in through the book room a man whose very appearance betokened a heretic. He was tall and gaunt, had long flowing hair coming down over his shoulders, and a long unkept beard. He came up to where I sat writing. I did not like to be interrupted, for I felt that he was going to waste my time with some religious oddity. He said, “I gather, sir, from the books I have seen in the window that you are a truth seeker, and I thought I would come in and have a chat with you.”
“You are mistaken,” I said; “I am not a truth seeker at all.”
“Oh, you are not; may I ask why you are not?”
“Why, because, sir, I have found him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and therefore my seeking is at an end. Once I was a truth seeker, but now I am a truth finder, for I know Christ.”
“Well, but are there not many things that you still need to know?”
“Oh, yes; there are a great many things that I need to know, but I have found the great Teacher, and I am not going around seeking truth any longer. He instructs me through his Word.”
“Well, as for me, I am always seeking; I go anywhere and everywhere that I think I can learn more.”
“Yes,” I said, “I was reading of you in my Bible the other day.”
“Of me?”
“Yes.”
“What did it say about me?”
“It said, ‘Ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.’”
“Why, that has no reference to me,” he said.
“Pardon me, but you said that you are always seeking and if a man is always seeking he is never finding. But, you see, those of us who know Christ have found him and have been found of him.”
Then he began to impart some of his weird gospel to me and said, “But you don’t know who I am.”
“No,” I said; “beyond what is written here I do not know who you are.”
“I am one of the 144,000 of whom you read in Revelation.”
“What tribe, please?” I asked.
“Well, the Lord knows; I don’t,” he said.
“Then you will have to excuse me for not taking your word for it and really believing that you are one of the 144,000.”
“But have you not heard that the first resurrection has already taken place?” he asked. “I am in my resurrection body.”
“Oh, I am dreadfully disappointed,” I said. “I never thought it would look like that. I thought it was to be something beautiful.”
Maybe I was a little discourteous to the poor old gentleman, but he was so indignant he turned and cursed me in the name of the Lord and tramped out knocking his shoes against the floor to shake off the dust as a witness against me.
“Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (II Timothy 3:7)
Source: H. A. Ironside, LITT.D, In The Heavenlies [Ephesians] (Loizeaux Brothers, 1937) pp. 197-199
If you are a truth seeker seeking to know the truth of the universe, let me point you to Jesus Christ who made the universe. He is, as revealed in the Holy Bible, The Truth. Once you meet Him, your journey will be at an end.
Speaking of Jesus, it is written:
And He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities –all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
And He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. (Colossians 1: 15-18)
Following The Teacher,
Carl
Eric Metaxas calls on the Church to ‘wake up’ or face disastrous consequences: ‘Everything’s at stake’
By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor
ORLANDO — Eric Metaxas isn’t afraid to speak difficult truths into an increasingly secularized culture, and he’s issuing a clarion call to the American Church to do likewise, warning that neglecting this call will lead to disastrous consequences.
“There are many pastors and Christian leaders being silent in the face of evil today,” the bestselling author and radio host told The Christian Post. “They are not all consciously working for the devil, they are, nonetheless, effectively working for the devil because they are unaware that what they’re doing is not what God calls His Church to do.”
Metaxas penned his latest book, Letter to the American Church, out of a conviction that the Church must “wake up” to the realities of evil and stand for biblical truth. In it, he draws from both history and the Bible to highlight the need for the church to speak out against societal evils.
“There are all kinds of figures from history and in the Scripture who understand that, ‘My duty is to God, and if that makes me unpopular, if that makes me attacked, who cares?’” he said.UnmuteAdvanced SettingsFullscreenPauseUp Next
According to Metaxas, the Church’s silence on critical issues effectively aids the forces of evil.
In his book, he draws sobering parallels between the modern church and the German Church of the 1930s, in which “pastors were somehow fooled into buying the idea that … we’re not supposed to go against the governing authorities.”
“What the German church did in the ’30s, they had no idea that they were getting this stuff wrong. They had all kinds of theological reasons why they thought it was good not to comment on politics,” he said. “We now see what the results were; it was a nightmare out of the pit of Hell. The evil that was unleashed because of the silence of the German Church is part of the ugliest history imaginable.”
“We look at Germany, and it’s very easy for us to say, ‘Oh, they should have spoken out against the Nazis,’” he added. “But we have pastors today who are effectively not speaking out against the Nazis. The Chinese Communist Party is as wicked as the Nazis ever were, with infinitely greater technology. They are doing satanic things. The Uighur Muslims in China are being murdered for their organs, which can be sold for a lot of money that accrues to the Communist Party. Where is the Church on that issue? How can you not be outraged?”
The Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy author added that many Americans have been sheltered from the harsh realities faced by others in the world and thus fail to recognize the value of their freedoms and the need to defend them. Just like the German Church, he said, the American Church has grown “complacent.”
“The German Church woke up when it was too late, and evil overtook that nation in Europe,” he said. “The blame lies at the foot of the German Church. And I think the same can be said of the American Church today if we don’t wake up.”
“What we have is a blessing from God, entrusted to us to protect, to keep and to give to our children and grandchildren,” he stressed. “If you don’t get that, it just sort of drifts away. We are at a moment where it’s drifting away very quickly.”
Metaxas contended that the cultural zeitgeist and misguided interpretations of biblical principles have led to the belief that the Church should remain apolitical — an idea he dismisses as nonsensical. The Church, Metaxas said, must understand its duty to God and not prioritize personal comfort or congregational numbers over speaking the truth.
“Imagine if a pastor got up and said, ‘I have no position on slavery. I have no position on legalized racism and apartheid. I have no political position on Jim Crow laws.’ You wouldn’t go to that church. You’d say, ‘What an idiot, what a moral pygmy that he thinks that he can be a pastor and not have an opinion on those issues,’” Metaxas said.
Pastors are called to speak out on all issues that affect human lives and dignity, he stressed: “You have an obligation to speak truth on these issues,” he said. “So any pastor that has his head in the sand on these issues, God will hold him responsible.”
While avoiding controversial or divisive topics might seem appealing, the author emphasizes that it ultimately “devalues the Gospel” and hinders evangelism.
“For every person that’s going to get ticked off that you said something, there’s another person that’s going to say, ’Thank goodness somebody is saying this; I didn’t know where to look anymore.’”
People are “looking for leadership from Christians,” Metaxas said. He pointed out that pastors who have been boldly speaking out against the “lunacy” of transgender ideology, cultural Marxism, critical race theory, open borders and defunding the police have seen their congregations surge in attendance.
“Things have gotten so bad that a lot of people finally are understanding, ‘OK, maybe I missed something. Maybe we had it so good that we forgot that evil is still alive, that we haven’t defeated evil, and we have to do what God calls us to do in the midst of it, and we haven’t been doing it,’” he said.
Historically, when the Church has drifted along with culture,” it has gone “dramatically badly,” Metaxas said.
“The issues are always different issues, but the results are always the same, and the guilt is always the same. God wants us to be alive to what is happening,” he said.
“Everything’s at stake. God has always looked to His Church, and we have dramatically disappointed Him in the past. I don’t believe it’s His will that we disappoint him this time, but it really is up to individual Christians.”
Letter to the American Church is available everywhere books are sold.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
Voddie Baucham identifies 3 ‘red flags’ churches are capitulating to modern, Neo-Marxist ideology (pt. 1)
By Leah MarieAnn Klett, Assistant Editor
Prominent pastor and author Voddie Baucham has identified three signs a church is abandoning Scriptural truths for modern, Neo-Marxist ideology in a culture where truth is under attack and Christianity is increasingly marginalized.
In an interview with The Christian Post, the 54-year-old dean of theology at African Christian University in Zambia highlighted several concerning trends in modern churches that he fears are eroding the foundations of Christianity, beginning with a de-emphasis of the Bible, where there is a lack of commitment to systematically teach and exposit the Scriptures.
“There’s not a commitment to a systematic exposition of the Bible, and what we hear from the pulpit is rooted and grounded in more psychology and philosophy than text and theology,” Baucham said.
The second red flag involves the church’s alignment with post-Christian culture. Baucham noted that some leaders preach messages that resonate with the values and agendas of the secular world, including issues related to LGBTQ+ concerns.
“You begin to hear things in the church, from the pulpit, from the leadership that resonate with this post-Christian culture, for example, the LGBTQ-plus, whatever agendas,” he said.
Finally, he said apologizing for essential Christian doctrines is another red flag indicating a departure from true, biblical Christianity.
“We’re apologizing for the ‘creation myth.’ We’re apologizing for the Gospel. We’re apologizing for the Reformation. We’re apologizing for Christian morality, these sorts of things. These are some signs that things have gone very wrong,” he said.
A May 2021 survey from Evangelical pollster George Barna found that just 6% of Americans have a “biblical worldview.” Similarly, survey data compiled in January 2020 showed that only 2% of millennials hold a biblical worldview, even though 61% identify as Christian.
Baucham, who is gearing up for a revised release of his 2004 book The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture?explained that for many decades, the Western Church has assumed and then forgotten the essence of the Gospel, leading to a foundation built on shifting sand rather than the solid rock of Christ.
The ramifications of that, he lamented, are becoming increasingly visible in today’s post-Christian America.
“For a long time, because of the assumptions of the culture, one of the things that we did was we assumed the Gospel,” Baucham said. “The message of the Gospel is an offensive message in a lost and dying world. But we assumed the Gospel. Then, after we assumed the Gospel, we forgot the Gospel and we left the Gospel behind. And we begin to build churches — and really, I use that term loosely because, in many instances, they aren’t churches — and gather people based on commonalities that were not Gospel-centered. We gathered people because we liked the same kind of music or we were in the same social class. We had those things as our foundation instead of having the Gospel as our foundation.”
Baucham, who previously served as pastor of Grace Family Baptist Church in Texas, stressed that the Gospel message is considered “offensive to the world.” And, in an attempt to avoid offense, many churches have neglected its transformative power. He warned that such churches, lacking a Gospel-centered foundation, are ill-prepared for the challenges of the post-Christian era.
“In this post-Christian era, where we’re all being sort of painted with the same brush, people who have not relied on the Gospel to build solid foundations are seeing their sheep scattered. They’re really not legitimate sheep in the first place, and they also don’t really know how to respond, because the response in many instances has been, ‘No, no, no, no, we’re not like them.’ And ‘them,’ of course, are conservative, Bible-believing Evangelicals, those people who have always been vilified by the culture at large.
“But that’s not working anymore,” he said, “because it’s not enough to just not hold firmly to the truths of the Gospel and to not hold firmly to those things that the culture finds offensive. Any identification now with Christianity, which is seen as the sort of ultimate hegemonic boogeyman in modern, Neo Marxist culture, is offensive. So, a lot of people are caught off guard because of compromises that they made a long time ago that looked like they were paying off.
Baucham issued an urgent call for a bold return to the core of Christianity: the unadulterated Gospel. He emphasized the need for churches to stand firm on biblical truths without compromise, even in the face of cultural pressure and vilification.
“We need to prepare ourselves for the opposition, not only the opposition coming, but for the opposition that’s already here,” he said. “We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. We need to be prepared to give an answer to those who ask us for the reason for the hope that is in us. We need to be prepared to speak to this post-Christian culture. Finally, we need to be prepared to accept the consequences of doing so, which are unpleasant.”
The Ever-Loving Truth: Can Faith Survive in a Post-Christian Culture? will be released on Sept. 16.
Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com
Is God ALMIGHTY?
In the gospels Christ teaches that God is almighty. But there is so much suffering in the world that God sometimes seems to be powerless. His Son, who was executed like a common criminal, continues to suffer every time a Christian is martyred. And atheist rulers try to chase Him from their countries. If God were almighty, wouldn’t He end the injustice and suffering?
A Communist prosecutor in the Soviet Union before its dissolution, lured or coerced a number of Christian children to disclose the names of their Sunday school teachers. As a result, four leading Christians in the town were sentenced to prison. Although these children could not have known the consequences of their actions, their consciences may forever accuse them as Judases.
Also in the Soviet Union, the children of a Christian family were placed in a home for mentally disabled children because they believed in Christ. One year later, their parents succeeded in getting them out of the home and having them evaluated by doctors in another town, and the children were found to be mentally healthy. Will these children ever recover from what they suffered?
Why does Almighty God ordain or even allow so much suffering? Is He almighty, or is He powerless? The suffering that all of us must endure prompts us to ask the same question.
First, we must examine our understanding of the word might. Many of us probably view the word as meaning the power to crush, subdue, suppress, or punish. But the word can also be used in a more positive way, as in the might to love, to be patient and quiet, to suffer innocently and to be good to wrongdoers.
While beating a Christian, a Communist officer told him, “I am almighty, as you suppose your God to be. I can kill you.” The Christian boldly replied, “The power is all on my side. I can love you while you torture me to death”. Such is God’s might which is reflected in the deep tranquility of the souls of saints. They do not ask “Why all the sorrow?” because they have learned to love the cross, accepting rejection and discomfort. When we take this attitude, our perplexity ceases.
Suffering drives some to despair and torments their soul, while others are grateful for it. I have seen faithful Christian prisoners dancing for joy. They recognize God’s might and patiently show love towards their torturers. God’s love will conquer.
We cannot understand God’s reasons for allowing suffering, but someday we will know as we are known by God (1 Corinthians 13:12). And cannot God compensate in eternity for suffering endured here for a little while? The saint is not a man who is illuminated by God. He is nothing, through whom God’s power shines to love even the worst of men. Who knows if today’s murderer may not be a future disciple?
We bless the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, advancing on the path of faith without tormenting ourselves with endless questions about suffering. May we embrace these unanswered questions as we learn to glorify Christ joyfully.
Author: Richard Wurmbrand (1909 -2001) was imprisoned in Communist Romania because of his faith in Christ. You can read his complete story in Wurmbrand: Tortured for Christ – The Complete Story.
Psalm 119: 38 