Earlier this week a mass grave believed to hold the remnants of several thousand massacred Jews was found in Ukraine. The Holocaust grave is at the site of a former Nazi concentration camp. This is a grim reminder of where fascism leads. The world is quickly heading in this direction, and the U.S. is not far behind. Germany has all but forgotten its dark past and is acting quickly to restore the former fascism brought in by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. The German government’s active persecution of Christian home schooling families is but one bleak example of the path they are choosing.
Socialism is rampant among the industrialized nations of the West. Canada and most of Europe has already adopted its tenants foisting the burden of the cost of socialized medicine and other social services upon their people. Granted these supposed government sanctioned “rights” people have little incentive to continue to work hard and be productive. God warns us of this in His written Word:
If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. (2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)
Here in the United States of America everyone can get food to eat regardless of whether-or-not they work. They either sign up for social security disability, food stamps, or both. Our government encourages single women engage in the immoral practice of fornication and adultery by subsidizing the rearing of illegitimate children. I know this sounds hard, and so it may be, but it is not the place of the government to care for day-to-day needs of individuals. That is the place of the Church. If someone is in need, then they need to join themselves to a local church that preaches and practices the full counsel of God as given to us in His written Word, the Bible. The place of the government is to ensure justice for its citizenry and to wield the sword for the maintenance of law and order and defense from alien, or outside, powers.
While we have not yet fully adopted the socialism agenda, we have adopted the mindset. No longer do families and the Church care for the needs of orphans and widows. The government has usurped this role. The reasons for this shift in power are too many to go into now, but one reason this situation remains is because the Church in the United States has become fat and lazy. We have become too accustomed to having this great (and it is great) burden lifted from our shoulders by the statists. Not only have we as the Church in this land become a fattened sluggard through unfettered prosperity, but we have also become forgetful, obtuse, and cowardly. Like an old toothless lion all that is left is our bark: millions of evangelicals can/will shift the polls! It doesn’t happen though. Why not? Because, like the old toothless lion, our enemies, those in this world doing the will of their father the devil, know we have lost our strength as a unified church, and we are now little to no threat. Their targets now are the few leaders, true believers, emboldened by the Holy Spirit working in their lives that rise to lead the remnant into the culture war, which we now face.
The Church in America today is but a remnant. Most who claim to be Christians are not. They have apostatized from the true faith embracing the post-modern dogma that absolute truth either does not exist or cannot be determined. What a farce! God has told us what truth is. “Jesus said …, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14:6). Those who reject the written Word of God do so to their own demise. They say that a claim of absolute truth is of the highest order of arrogance, and admitting to not know the truth is what a humble Christian should really do. This could not be more wrong and antithetical to Scripture and what God has already revealed to us. Again, Jesus said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free [from sin and death] (John 8:31-32).”
We, the Church in America today, have become forgetful and stupid, not knowing the written, revealed Word of God. We neglect to study His Word daily to write it upon the tablet of our hearts (Proverbs 7:3).
For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. (Hebrews 4:12-13)
The written, revealed Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit. God commands us to take up “the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God (Ephesians 6:17, emphasis added). Accepting Jesus as Savior alone is not good enough. We must also accept Him as our Lord (Romans 10:9). His command is to go into the entire World preaching the good news of the gospel of salvation (Mark 16:15). You see, part of the gospel message is that Jesus is Lord; He conquered death itself! James the Apostle wrote that some will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works (James 2:18). Our works do not determine our faith, but they do mirror it. Is it not said that words are cheap? God knows the thoughts and intents of our hearts. If we only give Him lip service, He knows it. That is why it is written in the book of Matthew:
Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!” (7:21-23, emphasis added)
Just because we do something in the name of God, it does not mean that is His will. God’s will is given to us in His written and revealed Word, the Bible. We are not to add to or take away from what He has said (Deuteronomy 4:2, Proverbs 30:6, Revelation 22:18-19).
Now, having deprived ourselves of the knowledge of the Word of God, we are ill-equipped to fight the good fight and run the race set before us with endurance (1 & 2 Timothy). In the face of the moral depravity and ideological onslaught of the culture in which we now find ourselves we have become cowards. We do not even attempt to confront the culture. Instead, we shame ourselves and our LORD, by joining them. We apostatize from the faith in our agreement with the culture, rather than agreeing with God and what He has said to us through His Holy Bible.
When you get down to it, that is all saving faith requires: agreement with God. God just wants us to agree with Him; we are depraved sinners, we need the salvation He offers, we cannot save ourselves. Saving faith is not something we can attain. We cannot even attain to a little bit of it! Apart from God’s infusion and inner-working of His Holy Spirit we are all like an unclean thing, and all our good works are like filthy rags before Him (Isaiah 64:6). If you are tired of trying to do good on your own, if you are tired of trying to earn your salvation, stop trying. You cannot do it on your own. Just agree with God, and what He has already said about you. Agree with God that you are a sinner, undeserving of His mercy and grace. Agree with God that you need the salvation He offers through the atoning sacrifice of His only begotten Son who suffered, bled, and died a criminal’s death for you. Agree with God that Jesus is not only your savior, but your Lord as well. Do this, just agree with God, and He will save you, and your life will never be the same again.
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