Christians In The Dark


One of the greatest disappointments in my Christian life has been the startling discovery that most people in America who call themselves Christian know very little about practically anything until it's too late. We've had the Word of God so watered down in most of our churches that we have no idea what it really says and we've been so sheltered from the horrors of this world that we have no real clue what's going on around us. Most Christians still don't know anything about the Satanic deception coming upon the whole world via the UFO/E.T. motif, they don't know that witchcraft has infiltrated the church in the name of Spiritual gifts, they don't know we're living in "the beginning of sorrows" described by Jesus in Matthew 24:4-12. Whenever the news of the world finally gets big enough to spill over onto our facebook pages, then we come out of our little cocoon's and post cute little Christian cliche's revealing to everyone just how uninformed (or misinformed) we really are. I have seen this no more apparent than recently with the result of Friday's Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage. (June 26, 2015)

After the ruling was published, I was grieved like many other Christians out there, but I wasn't going to post anything about it. Bible prophecy buffs already know we're living in the last days and this is just one more little log on the fire. Besides, the Supreme Court has been ruling against the values of Christianity for years, this is nothing new. Romans 1:18-32 prophesied that these days would come, so why should any of us be surprised? You should read that passage because it sounds like it's describing exactly what's been going on in the United States for about the past 70 years or more. So does 2nd Timothy 3:1-5. But what finally brought me to my keyboard to post about this wasn't the ruling of the Supreme Court itself, but the reaction I saw from uninformed Christians who've been condemning other Christians for their condemnation of the ruling.

My first posted reaction was published after I had read from a pastor's blog who claimed the Bible couldn't be used to condemn homosexuality because it didn't condemn slavery, polygamy or sexual inequality. If this had been someone at a gay-pride parade, I wouldn't care. But this diatribe came from a so-called pastor. I've heard other Christians disregard the Bible as a legitimate source for establishing anything because "it all depends on how you interpret it" they say. So that's what inspired my post, "Did God Really Say That?"

Then last Sunday night, I saw this blog-post from someone named Kaitlin who sounds to me like a legitimate Christian. Her heart is in the right place, but she's obviously uninformed about what's been going on up until the ruling. She writes as though all was right with the world when the Supreme Court just made it a little easier for gays to get legally married one day. Then all of a sudden, millions of rage-filled Christians took to the internet to lash out at the gay community for being evil, wicked homosexuals who are going to burn for all eternity in the fires of hell. It surprised and upset Kaitlin so much that it brought her to tears and in her loving heart, she felt the need to apologize to the gay community on behalf of her angry Christian brothers and sisters who have forgotten how to show the love of Christ. If the story had begun on Friday June 26, 2015, then I would have agreed with Kaitlin's blog post. But the story didn't begin on Friday June 26, 2015.

The story began around a decade ago when eHarmony.com was prosecuted by gays for not including a gay/lesbian section on their dating site. eHarmony.com was supposedly the first Christian dating website ever created. So obviously, the creators of the site never expected gays to be interested. There were plenty of other dating websites that the gays could have joined, but no! They wanted the Christian-ran dating website to get them together. So the Christians at eHarmony.com had to betray their own faith and help the gays get together at their website. eHarmony lost, they were forced to add a section for gays, and are now no longer promoting their site as a Christian dating site.

Then a few years ago, a Christian who runs a nation-wide chicken-sandwich restaurant, was specifically asked how he felt about gay marriage. Since he was a Biblical Christian, he held the Biblical beliefs of a Christian. These beliefs didn't personally affect gays in the least. There are no "straight-only" lines at Chick Filet, nor are there any "straight-only" rules about working there. The founder of Chick Filet wasn't a leader in politics, he wasn't a lawyer, he wasn't a judge, or even a pastor of a church. He was a guy who started a chain of restaurants that made chicken sandwiches. He had no way of persecuting gays even if he wanted to. He had never said anything about homosexuality before. It wasn't on his radar. But because his Christian faith was a matter of public record, his stance on gay-marriage was specifically asked about and then brought out into the light. Lesbian and gay groups across America lashed out and attacked the food chain with threats of boycotts and lawsuits. "WE'LL SHUT YOU DOWN!!!!!!!!" they said. Lawyers and various judges were getting ready. But then something wonderful and unexpected happened. Christians across America showed their support for the Christian founder's courage and filled the drive-thru lines at every Chick Filet in every town for several weeks in a row.

Then, a gay couple brought a lawsuit against a Christian group who baked wedding cakes. The gay couple could have gone to any number of stores that baked wedding cakes, but they specifically chose the Christian's store. Similar cases happened across the nation with various Christian-run wedding stores, shops, planners, etc... Christians were hauled into court, demanded to betray their faith or shut their businesses down and by order of the court, go through sensitivity training.

Then, in various churches across America, gay couples wanted Christian pastors to marry them in their churches. Some churches complied, but many of them did not. It went against the Biblical beliefs of the pastors who would have been asked to perform the ceremony. Many pastors won't perform a wedding ceremony for anyone that they feel shouldn't be married. A church wedding isn't like a civil wedding. A civil wedding is just about licences and laws. A church wedding, performed by the pastor of that church, is specifically being called upon to witness and Spiritually endorse the joining of those being married. If a pastor, for example, feels that a young couple might be rushing into things, he won't agree to marry them. So no wonder, these same pastors won't participate in joining a gay couple in marriage. They have to worry about God's approval first, before the approval of the politically correct.

Last year, the lesbian mayor of Houston, Texas was so upset about this that she demanded by order of the court, the confiscation of all sermon-notes from Houston's pastors. The pastors jokingly complied saying, "If she wants to read our sermon notes, that's ok with us. We wish everyone was interested in reading our sermons." But the mayor's actions were meant to be a tactic of intimidation. She wanted to make sure those pastors weren't preaching against homosexuality. That's called hate-speech if your a member of the militant gay community.

So that brings us to last week's ruling from the Supreme Court. The Christians that reacted quickly in condemning the ruling did so because they are already aware of a movement of Christian persecution that has already begun and is about to get worse. Gay militants across the land have already said boldly and publicly, "the churches are next!" This isn't about equality for gays. This is about revenge. Kaitlin, you're heart is in the right place but you've been misinformed about who's doing the name-calling and who's doing the persecuting. So when you apologize to the gay community for the behavior of your fellow Christians, these are the people you are apologizing to. If they have their way, the first half of your blog post (where you define your Christian beliefs) will be illegal to post, you'll be demanded to take them down and you will have to attend courses in sensitivity training.

Then I found this little blog post on a friend's facebook status this morning. Read the entire blog and you'll see that once again, the Christian blogger has his heart in the right place but seems oblivious to what's been going on for the past 10 years. He lists 5 bullet points which have absolutely nothing to do with why Christians have reacted negatively to the Supreme Court's ruling.

He's right about point number 1, but in point number 2 he says "It's Actually Strange To Ask Non-Christians To Hold Christian Values." But that's not what's happening! It's the other way around! It is the community of non-Christians who are expecting Bible-believing-Christians to hold non-Christian values. You've got it backwards, my friend. Non-Christians are the ones who are seeking out Christians and forcing them by whatever means necessary, by court or otherwise, to do what they know in their heart, they cannot do.

He's right about point number 3, but in point number 4 he says "The Early Church Never Looked To The Government For Guidance." That's not what's happening now, either! We're trying to get the government off our backs so we can follow the guidance of the Lord without having our businesses shut down or being forced to attend classes in sensitivity training simply because we don't wish to participate in a gay wedding! Up until recently, the government never got in our way! Up until now, we've lived under the umbrella of religious freedom! That's slowly being stripped away. Since our government was originally founded by "WE THE PEOPLE" then it's WE THE PEOPLE who need to speak out when the government goes way out-of-bounds of it's Constitutional authority.

But point number 5 is where I strongly disagree. He says "Our Judgment Of LGBT People Is Destroying Any Potential Relationship." But how are we supposed to establish any kind of relationship with anyone who feels we are the ones who should be apologizing and repenting to them for not accepting, agreeing with and embracing their lifestyle? That's what it would take! That would be like Moses turning a blind-eye to Hebrew slavery to keep from destroying a potential relationship with the Egyptians.

We're supposed to be healers in a hurting world. How can we begin to heal anyone of anything if we won't acknowledge the sickness? How would you feel if someone wrote, "Our Judgment Of Drunk Drivers Is Destroying Any Potential Relationship." I'm sorry but before I get into any relationship with a drunk driver, I'm gonna take away the car keys!! I'm not riding in the car with a drunk driver until he's first repented of drunk driving and has agreed to drive soberly or not at all. I'll do that from the curb, not inside the car.

What if doctors were asked to set aside their judgment? They wouldn't heal anybody of anything. They couldn't call the flu, the flu. They couldn't say diarrhea was diarrhea. They couldn't tell smokers to stop smoking to prevent lung cancer. Doctors pride themselves in identifying diseases by name and offering remedies for each disease. Well, the Christian remedy for the disease of sin is to acknowledge it before God, repent of it (which simply means, we agree with God on His views about our sin) and then allow the blood of Jesus Christ to wash away our sin and guilt and then let God go to work on us. That doesn't make us perfect, but we've humbled ourselves before God and aligned our view of our sin in agreement with God's view of our sin. The gay community wants nothing to do with this.

How did John the Baptist approach potential relationships during his witnessing ministry? He didn't preach love, tolerance and understanding; he called out all sinners in the land from the peasant to the King himself. That's why he was arrested because he brought to light the fact that the King was sleeping with his own brother's wife. What about Jonah? Did he go to Nineveh and say, "Listen guys, I understand how it is, but... ya know, God really loves you and would like to heal you, and don't take this the wrong way because I'm not here to judge you or anything but..." No, we don't read any of that. He went to Nineveh with the message, "In 40 days, Nineveh will be overthrown!" Period! Nineveh repented and God spared them. Jesus was not without kindness and gentleness but if you'll remember his conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, he didn't waste any time pointing out to her the sin she needed saving from.

Most Christians today have a paralyzing phobia of being judgmental. While the Bible teaches against having a judgmental spirit, our present day fears of being (or sounding) judgmental doesn't come from Biblical Christian teaching. A whole lot of people have been throwing around that accusation lately but it doesn't mean what a lot of people think it means. Judging is personal condemnation. It's when one person condemns another person. Jesus told us not to do that because we have only One judge who is God. But when one person condemns a form of behavior as evil, wicked, harmful or unhealthy, that's called discernment. Discernment is a good thing. Without discernment, no one would be able to point out healthy food vs unhealthy food, good driving habits vs bad driving habits, etc... Good discernment is how we decide all things in life. Only when it comes to certain forms of behavior (such as homosexuality) is good discernment called "being judgmental".

I'll admit that those with unhealthy lifestyles may feel that they're being judged when others condemn their behavior, such as how smokers feel when whole cities adopt ordinances that push them into the backrooms of a restaurant, or outside the restaurant, or 20 feet away from the entrance of the restaurant, or away from the parking lot altogether. (I used to be a smoker, so I know what that feels like.) But people would tell you that no one is judging smokers personally, they just don't agree with the lifestyle of smokers and don't want to be around it. Our entire nation has adopted laws through taxes and insurance penalties that condemn the smoking lifestyle. I don't recall anyone accusing non-smokers of bigotry, hate-speech or judgmentalism when any of that happened. Why aren't lawsuits being filed against establishments with smoke-free environments for discriminating against those with different breathing-orientations?

Passing laws that limit an unhealthy lifestyle isn't being judgmental, it's being discerning and protective of those who wish to be free from it's effects. Those who engage in the homosexual lifestyle are engaging in an unhealthy lifestyle. Whether or not they can help it is debatable and irrelevant. I know this because I've spoken with several Christians who came out of the homosexual lifestyle who helped me understand it better.

Having a discerning spirit is a good thing and is a gift from the Holy Spirit. If we were to apply the world's standards of being "judge-free" then we would have to eliminate all bathroom scales that offend the obese every time they stand upon them. We'd have to eliminate oral thermometers so as not to offend anyone with high fever. If health-food stores had to comply with the obese community as eHarmony had to comply with the gay community, then health-food stores would have to start selling junk food to keep from being accused of discrimination.

What so many Christians in the dark do not understand, is that there is presently a sinister movement of persecution against Christians that's finally begun in the United States of America. The militant homosexual agenda is the vehicle that's transporting the persecution. There are no Mosques that will accommodate a gay couple because Muslims don't acknowledge gay-marriage either. Why don't we hear anything about gays prosecuting Muslims? Because gays aren't seeking equality. They're seeking to persecute Christians.

But Christians who wish to remain in their coma don't want to be bothered by any of this and would rather tell those of us who are sounding the alarm to shut-up and quit being so judgmental.

"He who justifies the wicked and condemns the just are both an abomination [exceedingly disgusting and hateful] to the Lord." Proverbs 17:15

"I appeal to you, brothers, to be on your guard concerning those who create difficulties and cause divisions that are in opposition to the teaching which you have been taught. I warn you to avoid them. For such persons do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ but serve their own appetites and base desires. And by good deeds and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the simple. For while your loyalty and obedience is known to all, I would have you well versed and wise as to what is good and what is evil. And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah) be with you." Romans 16:17-20

Like all other things, hang in there folks. Jesus promised us persecution. It's part of the job description of being a Christian. We've been fortunate in the United States up until now, but those days are numbered. It's interesting to see the backlash coming from state courts since Friday's ruling. We'll just have to wait and see where it all goes.


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