Silence in the face of evil is evil itself. ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, World War II Author and Martyred Pastor
The church is the last moral voice we have in our society. Because we deal with the truth about immorality, there will be a move to marginalize our voices and ridicule our beliefs.
Often, I have called Hollywood filmmakers to be cowards because they love to mock Christianity in their films … they would never think of using the same rhetoric about Islam. Christianity has been outlawed, both in the past and in the present, in many communist countries, primarily because of the threat of the people having a dual allegiance to the church and their government.
Yet, if Christianity wasn’t dangerous, why are we seeing 13 Christians, worldwide, being killed each day due to their faith? Every day, 12 churches are being attacked worldwide. In the United States, Christians are being attacked by the left for speaking out about the butchery of children and undergoing surgery to become the opposite sex. Just our pushing back on not agreeing with the current trends of the non-binary crowd pushing their ideas that there are no gender divisions brings us to the point of Christians being hated.
Jesus did say that His followers would be hated by all nations. That hatred is both because we stand for the truth being in Jesus Christ, but also because our voice of decency on social issues is being pushed by the radical thinking of our era. When the church chooses not to speak against the radical ideas being perpetrated about sexuality today, we are as guilty as those who believe in these lies. The Prophet Isaiah said this about being silent in the face of evil:
Isaiah 56:10 For the leaders of my people— the LORD’s watchmen, his shepherds— are blind and ignorant. They are like silent watchdogs that give no warning when danger comes. They love to lie around, sleeping and dreaming.
Silent watchdogs are worthless, eating and sleeping with no benefit as a dog that warns about impending danger. Isaiah was using this metaphor to describe God’s spiritual leaders of his day, yet that description can apply to all kinds of people today who have a responsibility to warn the public about the advancement of an enemy force. Where are the Doctors and the geneticists who know about the genetics of the human body? Why are they silent watchdogs when the non-binary crowd spills out its lies about having no gender differences? Where are the politicians who are elected to protect the public, especially children, against harm? Why do they allow children to have harmful surgery based on gender preference? Educators who have an agenda that, in my opinion, is treasonous … teaching kids about racial profiling, white privilege, and how our government has suppressed the rights of people of color. This is not education … it is propaganda. Again, where are the parents, the school boards, and the state legislators to say, “Enough?" A leader's silence on the issues of human depravity is sinful, and the silence of programming our kids with the propaganda of a socialist worldview is criminal in the United States of America.
Someone said to me the other day, “The problems in this country could be laid at the doorstep of their church.” There is a lot of truth in that statement. Robert Jeffries from First Baptist Church has been preaching that for years. As Jesus pointed out in Revelation Chapters 2 and 3, the churches needed some correction, and the same is true today. Why?
1. Your leaders are compromising the truth. God’s problem with Israel was compromising leadership. Some things have never changed.
2. Your idols of success. We have replaced God with the idea that says that giftedness is more important than character.
3. Your teaching emphasis is wrong. To obey God is better than anything else. 1 Samuel 15:22 teaches us that “Obedience is better than sacrifice and submission is better than offering the rat of rams.”
4. Your truth-telling is weak. It is God’s perspective we need to expose, not our own passions and philosophy.
5. You have not connected what you see in this world to the sign of His return. The lack of good teaching or the blatant refusal to teach in the church on the Second Coming of Jesus Christ is spiritual incompetence.
To me, this form of Christianity is also dangerous, because it is toxic to the message of Jesus Christ. When a church is not teaching the truth in God’s Word, you can guarantee they are not standing up against the evil in our society.
Toxic Christianity then:
1. Does not teach the truth of the Bible.
2. Does not push back against the evil in our society.
Christianity that is dangerous teaches that the Words of Jesus are dangerous because they will change your life forever. They will not only inspire people to do good work toward others, but they will also challenge the lies that are being told to our society.
As one parent who wrote an editorial in a local paper said, “When are the pastors going step up to the plate and speak out?” “It is the duty of the church to speak out against all evil, yet the church is silent.”
These are good and soul-searching comments.
Christianity is dangerous to evil. It is dangerous not to take Jesus seriously and take Him from the pew on Sunday to the marketplace on Monday. Just reading the Words of Jesus is dangerous because they will change your mind and your heart into a follower who denies the life they are now living, to pick up a sacrificial life dedicated to God, and a life that will follow Him wherever He leads. Now, that is dangerous.
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler
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