Warriors fight in war. We are in a war.
During our dealings this week, a workmate asked me how I feel about this gay lobby. After reflecting for a few seconds and gathering my words carefully, I responded along these lines:
Like every one of us, the gay lobby is also made up of fallen individuals, each of whom God loves. Jesus died for these people. God also calls us to love each of them.
God created marriage to be between one man and one woman, pure in every way, just as a picture of Christ and the Church. Marriage is not to be compromised.
Our law is good and fair and requires us to treat each individual equitably and without prejudice or discrimination, and so we should. Our laws also do not require us to deny our Lord or our faith, and we can live out our standards based on our biblical beliefs, so we need not be compromised.
The bottom line: We are called to love the individuals without loving the sinful behaviour. Pretty much business as usual! This is opportunity for gospel discussion.
Are you legalistic and judgmental, or loving and gracious?
Bill Muehlenberg recently posted the following thoughts, and I reproduce his article in full
:
"Christians: How Long Will You Keep Denying the Lord?
“Who me, deny the Lord?” you might be saying right now. Yes you. It
is time to get real here. How many Christians are in fact denying their
Lord in all sorts of ways, maybe even on a daily basis? How many because
of cowardice, because of being men-pleasers, because of wanting to be
accepted, will refuse to stand for Christ, especially at crunch times?
How often have we had a chance to share the gospel or talk about
Jesus or stand up for a crucial ethical issue, yet we have remained
silent, fearful of upsetting folks and losing “friends,” or worried
about what they might think of us? Come on, let’s be honest with
ourselves here.
This is a massive problem and sadly I see it happening all the time.
Indeed, I have even had good Christians tell me how fearful they are of
speaking up. And they may have all sorts of good reasons for this
silence, such as the need to keep their jobs so they can feed their
families.
But just how long can we expect that our silence will be winked at or
overlooked by our Lord? How long before we realise that maybe some
things are more important than even keeping our jobs? How long before we
realise that God is quite able to look after and support his own, if
they faithfully give him 100 per cent of their lives?
Yes
we all must look after our families, and yes we all must be wise here
and not reckless, silly or presumptuous. But I believe that as Western
culture grows increasingly hostile to Christ and Christians, we will all
be forced to make a choice: do we keep denying our Lord with our
silence and our cowardice, or do we risk everything for Christ and the
Kingdom?
Will we be willing to lose our jobs because we were much more worried
about denying our Lord? And do we really believe that God is able to
look after us, provide for us, and feed and clothe us, if we stand for
him unflinchingly, whatever the cost?
Well, do we? We all need to be asking ourselves these sorts of
questions as the days grow darker, the anti-Christian bigotry gets
worse, and more and more believers decide to deny their faith instead of
stand for what is right. Just whose side are you on actually?
And it is not just refusing to speak up for the Christ and share the
gospel that I am referring to here. I believe we can just as effectively
deny our Lord when we refuse to speak out on the issues of the day that
are so vitally important. And it should be clear what some of these
crucial moral and social issues are.
The battle for life is one obvious area. We all should be standing up
for the unborn, for the elderly, for the weak. We should be resisting
the culture of death. Consider just three biblical passages on this:
Psalm 82:2-4 Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
Proverbs 24:11 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
Proverbs 31:8 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.
And the same with the war on marriage. God’s institutions of
marriage and family are under massive assault right now, especially with
the push to redefine and destroy marriage, and to steal from children
their right to their own biological mother and father.
All Christians should be standing strong on this. All Christians
should be speaking out on this. All Christians should be doing
everything they can to support natural marriage and resist the militant
homosexual agenda. Yet we find most Christians refusing to say a word or
do a thing.
For all sorts of reasons they are sitting on their easy chairs
tight-lipped as this war on marriage escalates. Shame on them. This is a
gospel issue. This is something all followers of Jesus Christ must be
involved in. By refusing to engage, we are effectively denying our Lord.
And the Bible speaks to this often, as you should know. One very
ominous passage is found at the end of Luke’s gospel. In Luke 22:61-62
we find this: “And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter
remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, ‘Before the
rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.’ And he went out and
wept bitterly.”
Wow, Peter denied Christ three times. But how many Christians have
denied Christ hundreds of times by refusing to speak up, by refusing to
resist the war on marriage, by worrying about what others may think, by
cowering in fear? This is equally as serious and sinful as what Peter
did.
Think also of some other very stern words from our Lord, such as Mark
8:38: “If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and
sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes
in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
Another such passage is Matthew 10:32-33: “Whoever acknowledges me
before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But
whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in
heaven.”
These are some very serious warnings which we all better pay very
close attention to. I ask this again: Are we denying our Lord? Are we
keeping silent about the things that matter when we should be shouting
truth from the rooftops? Well, are we?
Let me finish with a few words to encourage you and inspire you in these matters:
“The desire to please may be commendable enough under certain
circumstances, but when pleasing men means displeasing God it is an
unqualified evil and should have no place in the Christian’s heart. To
be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.” A.W. Tozer
“Rule of thumb: if your principles evaporate the moment courage is
required to defend them, you have no principles. You’re a panderer, not a
warrior.” Matt Walsh
“How few men are strong enough to stand against the prevailing currents of opinion.” Winston Churchill
“If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every
portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the
world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing
Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle
rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on
all the battle front besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches
at that point.” Attributed to Martin Luther
“Boldness enables Christians to forsake all rather than Christ, and
to prefer to offend all rather than to offend Him.” Jonathan Edwards
“Even a dog barks when his master is attacked. I would be a coward if
I saw that God’s truth is attacked and yet would remain silent.” John
Calvin
“What the world needs most is a voice that courageously speaks the
truth, not when the world is right, but a voice that speaks the truth
when the world is wrong.” Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen
“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us
guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Dietrich
Bonhoeffer
“Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.” Billy Graham
Let me ask one last time: Are we denying our Lord?"
References:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/08/20/christians-long-will-keep-denying-lord/
Artwork: Peter's Denial by Carl Heinrich Bloch (1834-1890)
Master Atheistic,
You may certainly deplore my “gullibility” and “childlike idiocy” if you want, but why do you care? What is it to you? If I am gullible and childlike, why does that anger you? It does not anger or upset me that you do not believe in Jesus. It simply doesn’t affect me... Why does this produce such a reaction in you? I am sure that you believe differently than many people on other things that don’t illicit this vulgar and critical of (sic) a response from you. There is something unique, though, about this particular issue, isn’t there? ...
I might suggest that there is something else below the surface here that creates this visceral reaction in you. As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, “He doth protest too much, me thinks!” Is there perhaps even a nugget in what I have written that you know deep down is true, and that you are trying to overcome by your attack of anyone who accepts this truth? It’s something for you to think on and consider. If you say this isn’t the case, how do you explain to yourself why it upsets you that I believe in Jesus? You and I may disagree on other points as well (like who’s the better football team, or if the dress is white/gold or blue/black, or if Coldplay is a good band, or if Lost is a good TV show... But I doubt any of these issues would cause you to write a complete stranger calling them a “gullible, childlike idiot"...
You are welcome to share your perspective and opinion here as long as you can do so in a manner that displays mutual respect and civil dialog. It is natural and expected that we don’t all agree on these issues. This is ok, and everyone should be entitled to their opinion. You won’t see me attacking another individual for their beliefs here. I will not allow others to do so, either. If you can’t contribute intellectually, or within the framework of logical discourse, then I will certainly not allow your comments to be posted here. It is NEVER fair or valid debate to claim someone’s ideas are untrue, and to support this claim by merely attacking their character, their intelligence, or their person...
I certainly don’t hate you or wish you ill will. I wish you the best, and desire nothing but good for you. I don’t deplore you for not believing the same way as I do...