A Christian friend told me about an old denominational preacher he knew as a young man who one day decided it was time for him to leave the congregation where he had been serving. When asked why he was leaving, he said that the time there and familiarity he had with everyone made it harder to confront sinful problems. Implied in his statement is that at an earlier age he would have engaged people and challenged them to change. But now it was just too hard. So rather than keep the fight for what was right, he decided to move on.
For various reasons men stop fighting and they just go along with the crowd.
A Christian friend told me about an old denominational preacher he knew as a young man who one day decided it was time for him to leave the congregation where he had been serving. When asked why he was leaving, he said that the time there and familiarity he had with everyone made it harder to confront sinful problems. Implied in his statement is that at an earlier age he would have engaged people and challenged them to change. But now it was just too hard. So rather than keep the fight for what was right, he decided to move on.
I bring this example up because this seems to be the plight of man. He grows tired of fighting. The risk isn’t worth it any longer. So men just go along and let the younger guys fight the fights.
Malcolm Muggeride pointed to this propensity of institutions in society to the do the same thing. Old media, the watchdog for society, at one time was daily ready to engage and fight to expose corruptions. Here is a paragraph from Muggeridge that illustrates what I’m referring to.
“For my own part, then, I should like to start a Society for the Preservation of Bad Taste [Muggeridge is answering the society that’s decided opposition to the status quo is ‘in bad taste’, DM], which has lately fallen into a sad decline. A Swift or a Hogarth, even a Max Beerbohm [non ‘fall in line’ writers of the past, DM], would find it difficult today to get his work published, while comments in early issues of Punch [Muggeridge was head of this publication for a while] on members of the royal family, on eminent politicians like Disraeli, and on cherished institutions like the Established Church, the Athenaeum Club and the Bridade of Guards, would induce a fit of apoplexy in present-day readers, and make them think of me as, by comparison with the then incumbent, a monument of respectability and conformity. Even the mealy-mouthed Times [Times of London, I believe Muggeridge refers to, DM] was once a veritable scold, with scant respect for those set in authority over us, before whom it now so consistently grovels.”
Muggeridge was all for more scolding of the powers that be, pointing to their faults and calling them out. He became the “scold” that the Times of London used to be. The old guards of liberty may no longer be up for the fight, but instead are content to fall in line and “grovel” before the corrupt powers. Of course, this has nothing to do with age. There are people of all ages who believe “respectability” is more important than standing up and opposing sin.
Let me try my hand at this by saying, President Obama, you are no Christian. President Obama, from your “bully pulpit” you have become a proponent of things unnatural. You spoke against God, against the Bible, and against the Christian lifestyle when you took to making homosexuality and transgenderism the norm in our society. The Bible says it is a sin for a man to sleep with a man. It’s unnatural and the President of the United States is being a poor minister of right and wrong, Romans 13:4.
Christians are not to judge the world; leave that to God, Paul said, 1 Cor. 5:12. Have I judged President Obama? I certainly have pointed out the truth. But is pointing out the truth of corruption in the world the same as judging the world? I don’t believe so. If I point out the corruption that dominates the entertainment business, have I said more than I should? I don’t think so? I don’t judge them. Pointing out their immorality isn’t the same thing as pointing out immorality in the church. Paul says in that same chapter that the church must judge those in the church, rooting out the leaven of sin, purging the fellowship of its influence, lest the whole lump of dough become corrupted by it. But I have no power – save perhaps by voting and speaking up – in the world to judge President Obama or corrupt politicians in both parties. But if the man is a fox, is it wrong for me to say he’s a fox?
I sense that my brethren in the church are uncomfortable with pointing out sin. “Just preach the Gospel and stay out of politics”, is the common refrain. I am in complete agreement that the whole Gospel must be preached. But my question and concern is in the application it has to the world in which we live. Does the Gospel preaching have something implicit or explicit to say to judges that break the law? Does it have anything to say to a President that has made it a major part of his legacy to normalize everything to do with gay sex? Does the Gospel have anything to say to politicians whose policies; action and inaction, are decimating the family that God designed? Where the world trounces on the values and teachings of Christ, that’s when Christians stand in opposition and refuse to give the appearance they are “falling in line” with the world.
Preaching God’s design of marriage is in “bad taste” to the ungodly world. Preaching that the gay lifestyle is grievous sin is in “bad taste” to the world that hates religion. I think instead of falling in line by being silent, we need to be speaking up while we can be heard.
Respectfully I say all of this. I pray for President Obama and for all Kings and Rulers because God desires for them to be saved. I hope the President and all corrupt leaders will repent of their ungodliness and turn to the only hope, Jesus Christ.
Categories: Uncategorized
A Conquering Faith 
Leave a comment