Evil and Christianity

The questions which I ask are more directed towards the audience of believers. To speak with unbelievers concerning the Holy Spirit, the purpose of the Church and our failures is foolish. These questions may seem irrelevant, but I challenge you to really take to heart what I ask.

            What is the difference between the Christians and the rest of America? I know for most the answer may seem quite simple, but allow me to rephrase what I ask so that you may have a better understanding of the question. How is someone able to tell apart a Christian from a non-believer?

            Growing up in a generation where love, peace, kindness, happiness, and charity are all sought after as a means for acceptance, I find it disturbing how similar the saved and unsaved really are. You cannot say that Christians are different because they are loving, the very act of love has become redefined to accommodate everyone everywhere.

            You cannot say that the difference is happiness because people, especially in our beautiful country, have found ways to spend their entire life fulfilling there every want and desire. It is true that there are people who know not the reality of Christ and are still happy.

            Our pastors would like for us to believe that charity is what separates the Church from the rest of the world, and yet this is not the case. Just recently, while attending Tri-City Christian Church, the pastor had said that America viewed the congregation in Florida that was going to burn hundreds of Quran on September 11th of this year. He claimed that that church will have a reputation for hate rather then one whose focus was giving or having a clothing drive (which Tri-City did) for their surrounding neighborhood. It is when the Church cares more about what the world thinks of them that we allow the corruption of doctrine and our love for God. We are no different from the pagans in America if we claim that we are charitable for there are charitable organizations, philanthropists, small businesses, most celebrities, and even Playboy donates to just causes.

            What is the difference I ask? If the world stands for what we stand for (peace, love, joy, kindness, and giving) than perhaps there really is no difference? And yet to think that there is no difference between the Christian Church and the World would be blasphemy. Hence truth shall prevail and differences will arise.

            The truth of the matter is that there is something terribly wrong with the Church here in America. Where once we stood for absolutes and tradition, tolerance and acceptance has crept in under the guise of love. How did this happen?

J. Gresham Machem

            “The industrial world of to-day has been produced not by blind forces of nature, but by the conscious activity of the human spirit; it has been produced by the achievements of science. The outstanding feature of recent history is an enormous widening of human knowledge…

            “No department of knowledge can maintain its isolation from the modern lust of scientific conquest; treaties of inviolability, though hallowed by all the sanctions of age long tradition, are being flung ruthlessly to the wind.

            “So many convictions have had to be abandoned that men have sometimes come to believe that all convictions must go. If such an attitude be justifiable, then no institution is faced by a stronger hostile presupposition than the institution of the Christian religion, for no institution has based itself more squarely upon the authority of a by-gone age.”

            Do you still not see the answer to my question? We have allowed the Church to become like the world because the “imaginations of man’s heart are evil,” and through modern “advancements” in science, philosophy, and logic we have allowed the corruption of the Word of God, our very foundation of truth and light.

            For some reason Christians believe or act as though we should be scared of, run away from, or even hide from the world, but “we can no more remove ourselves from [the] world than we can escape from the atmosphere that we breathe.”

            Hear the words of a great theologian right before he was put to death for his beliefs:

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

            “I have come to some conclusion. During the last year or so I’ve come to know and understand this profound worldliness of Christianity. This is something I am discovering right up to this moment, that it is only by living completely in this world that one learns to live by faith. One must completely abandon any attempt to make something of one’s self. Whether it be a saint, or converted sinner, or churchman, righteous man, or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one. By this worldliness, I mean living undeservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures, experiences and perplexities. In so doing, we throw ourselves in the arms of God. Taking seriously not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. Watching with Christ in Gethsemane. That, I think, is faith. That is how one becomes a man and a Christian.”

            The enemy has found his way into our flock because we did not know who he was. As we speak, he sends his wolves to rationalize away the authority and importance of the reality of the Bible. And that reality is clear and crisp with a message not to be ignored or redefined. We are not to test the Bible with the knowledge of man; instead, man’s thoughts, philosophies, logic, and science are to be tested by the Word of God.

            If the Church of today believes in the authority of the Bible, created by God and inspired by His Spirit, then the difference between the world and Christians should be evident. Though we stand for love, joy, peace, and charity, we are called to oppose, resist, and even hate that which is evil:

“Let those who love the Lord, hate evil” (Psalms 97:10)

“To fear the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13)

“Hate evil, love good, maintain justice in the courts” (Amos 5:14-15)

Micah 3:2

            If anyone, be it pastor or elder, friend or father, says that we are not to hate evil…let him be damned.

            It is because the church does not hate evil that we have allowed wolves into the midst of the congregation. However, before we can hate evil we must recognize what it truly is as defined by the Word of God. This is not so easy a task for after evil is defined, a name must be given or else that which we resist, fight, and turn away from can deceive even the elect. It is for this reason Christians are to be engulfed by God’s Word, that we may understand what pleases and what displeases our Lord. We must know the Light so we may truly know the darkness and be aware of it.  

            As soon as we begin to hate evil, as soon as we take seriously our responsibility and duties as followers of Christ, as soon as we get out from under the skirt of the Church and stop running from the world, will the sheep skins fall off the wolves and differences will be revealed to mankind.

            Have you forgotten that this is war? God chose Generals to lead His people in the past. In this war, there can be no “ ‘peace without victory;’ one side or the other must win.” Right now, after the apologist has gone out into the world. Swinging the sword of truth and defending the faith with his shield. He seeks rest within the citadel of his church only to find that he hands his armor to an enemy at the door.

            If you disagree with what I say then speak. If you agree, then I ask you not only to speak out, but to act. For if you agree with these words of mine, but do not wish to change or fight for what is right, and would rather just send a private message…then get out of my way for you are no better than the rest. Speak out.

What is Love?

         I have spoken against the generations of old, but do not think that I hold my generation less accountable. It is evil enough to keep silent whilst the Devil twists the minds of the elect. He has been quite busy these past 2,000 years. More cunning and adapting to his ever vigilant and faithful opposition. And yet, it would be considered utter foolishness to deny the casualties the Christian Church has suffered. We have allowed our vocabulary to become compromised. Words, which once created such elaborate nightmares for the enemy, have now become his stronghold in this passionless world.

        When asked to define a word, the Christians of old would dare not lean upon there own understanding for fear of contradicting Holy Writ. Instead, they would search through the scriptures to get their answers. And this is where we find our first quandary. This generation, and the previous, has forgotten how to define words, thus distorting the very reality in which they live.

        Allow me to explain. If you base what you perceive as “real” upon what you know, and if what you know is proven to be false…then reality is distorted. How are we to perceive what we know unless we can define what we perceive? Hence, if those very definitions are false, then what we know is false.

The word that I am speaking of is “love.”

What does the world define love as?

Love cannot hate and is the opposite of hate.

Love is always kind and never offends

Love is never mean

Love seeks to please

Love is accepting of all

         This sounds right…does it not? The Christians looks at this and accept it because of its simplicity. “How could such a thing interfere in my life?” “It sounds so beautiful and melodious to the ear.” And to get reassurance, they will search the scriptures for that which agrees with their definition…and what do they find?

1 Corinthians 13

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

1 Timothy 6

“Follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.”

Colossians 3

“Since God chose you to be the holy people whom he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. You must make allowance for each other's faults and forgive the person who offends you”

And there you have it! Love is always kind. Love is gentle. Love does not offend and is always accepting.

          My dear reader, can you not see the folly we have committed? If the Christian is to stand out within the world for the sake of Christ, and Christ is love, then why is it that we cannot be told apart? Is this truly the definition of love? By accepting such a thing, we not only compromise our duty, but the very Word of God. In the same Bible that these passages are found, we see love acted out by Christ.

John 2

And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables. And He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away! Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!” Then His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house has eaten Me up.”

Matthew 12

Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.

John 8

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

Luke 11

“Teacher,” said an expert in religious law, “you have insulted us, too, in what you just said.”

“Yes,” said Jesus, “what sorrow also awaits you experts in religious law! For you crush people with unbearable religious demands, and you never lift a finger to ease the burden.”

          Is this a contradiction? For in one passage it says to be kind and gentle, and yet in another passage it says that He, whom we are to imitate, was neither kind nor gentle. The only way that this becomes a contradiction is if we allow the world to govern our vocabulary. We are called to be kind…we are called to be gentle….but, as Jesus points out, sometimes the truth must be delivered in such a way that is unkind and very blunt/harsh. And so I ask you, are you strong enough in your faith to discern when to be aggressive?

As some of you may have noticed, there is a video going around of a man rapping about religion. Many have “liked” the video and “shared” it with there friends. I ask, how naive has the Church truly become? Is this what we are…def and dumb? Did you not listen to what the man said within the video? I mean, sure, if you’re an atheist…I can completely understand as to why you would love this song, but even I expected more from my fellow RELIGIOUS brothers and sisters.

Please allow me to explain myself. Throughout the centuries, the Church has permitted certain words to be redefined. Words like: passion, judgment, peacemaker, hate, love, etc. OUR generation was not yet born when this occurred, and for some strange reason the generation before us sat carelessly by whilst the WOLVES and the WORLD took these words and redefined what they meant. And do you know what’s funny; the new definitions were accepted whilst the old definitions (which were created from the Bible) were thrown out! Why would the Church do such a thing? The answer is pure and simple. To reach more people you must alter that which is keeping them away.

If the Bible says to HATE sin, then we must take that out and say “All hatred is sin.” If the Bible says that sometimes LOVE will be offensive, then we must redefine it so that LOVE is always gentle and never ever unpleasant. So they altered our very foundation, leaving us in a state of constant corrosion, which will cause more casualties then rescues.

My fellow RELIGIOUS brothers and sisters. We are now faced with another WORD which the WOLVES/WORLD seeks to redefine…and that word is RELIGION.

For some reason, this rapper believes that man created RELIGION. It would be just as foolish to say that man created the TRINITY  and the RAPTURE. These words are not found in the Bible, but their meaning is evident. If you were to go back in time and ask the Apostles if they believed in the Trinity, they wouldn't know what the heck you were talking about. Upon explaining that it’s the belief in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as both one in substance and purpose, they would then say yes.

If you were to ask the Apostles if they were religious, they would have no idea what you were saying, but once you explained that religion is " the service and worship of God or the supernatural and commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance" they would say yes.

Here is the Definition of RELIGION

Webster’s Dictionary (1913)

          “The outward act or form by which men indicate their recognition of the existence of a god or of gods having power over their destiny, to whom obedience, service, and honor are due; the feeling or expression of human love, fear, or awe of some superhuman and overruling power, whether by profession of belief, by observance of rites and ceremonies, or by the conduct of life; a system of faith and worship; a manifestation of piety; as, ethical religions; monotheistic religions; natural religion; revealed religion; the religion of the Jews; the religion of idol worshipers.”

Webster’s Dictionary (Today)

• the service and worship of God or the supernatural

• commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

• a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

• a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith 

According to the definition of Religion….Adam and Eve were religious because what they did indicated “their recognition of the existence of a god” (the GOD to be more precise). They worshiped Him. They were devoted to Him. They had certain beliefs and practices.

Lets go a step further. Jesus was RELIGIOUS. He was a practicing Jew. That is why at age 12 He was at the temple, and at age 30 He became a Rabbi. According to this definition, Jesus indicated his recognition of the existence of God (He taught the disciples how to pray and how to worship).

 

Again, Paul was RELIGIOUS. He never stopped being a Pharisee even after he was converted. As a matter of fact, Paul had practiced what is known as the Nazarite Vow (Acts 15:26-27 and Numbers 6:1-21)

So now we must ask ourselves, what is to happen if we give the World “RELIGION?” Well, lets look at the song and see what the WORD becomes:

1. Something that causes WAR                                            
2. Fails to feed the poor
3. Hates single moms who have had a divorce
4. Ridicules God’s people
5. Can’t fix its problems
6. Never gets to the core
7. Foolish
8. A bunch of rules
9. Self-righteous
10. Has nothing to do with Jesus
11. Created by man
12. An infection
13. Enslavement
14. Makes you blind
15. Searching for God
16. It is not Christianity
17. Doesn’t believe Jesus was the END

This is the world’s definition of religion.

We know that religion doesn’t cause Wars…it’s the people. You might as well say spoons make people fat.

We know that you will have the poor with you always and just because they are there doesn’t mean we are failing to help them.

Religion doesn’t hate the single moms. The PEOPLE do.  

Religion doesn’t ridicule, but the people might. And it sounds as though this man has been getting some heat/ridicule for the blasphemies he has been spreading.

We must know our problems and admit them before we can fix’em. And yet, instead of fixing them, this rapper wants to simply attack the intangible.

And you are darn right we have a bunch of rules, or else we would try to govern ourselves but we’re no better then fools. Rules set by the Word of God

And last but not least, there is something you should know. This video is not only being spread by the ignorant Christians, but also by the Atheists and Homosexuals. They love it. They don’t want rules or guidelines. They already blame religion for war. The World thinks that we are self-righteous and another form of slavery.

Paul called himself a Christian. He didn’t deny that. Christianity is a religion. So what are you going to do? Just hand over “RELIGION?” Or are you going to take a stand and do what our ancestral Christians should have done in the past…and fight. Let’s take back our vocabulary and stop the infection from spreading.

Now I would have totally agreed with this Song if he was talking about the Christian Church and its failures, but he’s not.

I challenge you to listen to the song again, but when he says religion, remember what it really means: “the belief and faith in God”

If you think that I have been too harsh. I apologize, not because I think I am wrong but because your ears are too sensitive towards chastisement. If you are going to talk about Christ…then you better damn well have your facts straight.

Meet Me at Thermopolyae

“We have, for more than one hundred years, been under sustained attack in the United States in our Theological Seminaries, Church related schools, and our Churches: a sustained attack by people who have the form of godliness and work within the structure of the Church and have, wherever they’ve been permitted the opportunity, diluted the gospel and destroyed the faith. They occupy, today, the chairs in our major Theological Seminaries, the rulership of our major denominational structures; they maintain boldly and boastfully, ‘This is the church!’ But it is not the Church if it denies the power of the gospel.” (1)

My Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Faith,

 I have come to a point in my life where I can no longer find refuge within the confines of the Church. If you know NOT what I am speaking of, than allow me to explain myself. The Elders have been given a responsibility to watch over the Lord’s Flock. And yet, for some reason, this responsibility has been neglected and, in some cases, shunned. WHAT is it that they are supposed to be looking for whilst watching over the Sheep? The answer may be found in the Scripture:

“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock-His church, purchased with His own blood-over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as elders. I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock.”

        I stand by what I say next… the generations before us have failed. It is easy to see how they allowed this to happen. The rise of Evolution, Feminism, Homosexuality, and the World Peace Movement. They wanted to spread the Gospel to a fallen world, so they allowed it to be compromised. For the Evolutionist, they threw away Creation. For the Feminist, they discarded Paul’s preaching. For the Homosexual, they distorted every passage concerning a pure lifestyle, and for those who want World Peace, they watered down the divisive words of our Savior.

            And now, it is my generation’s turn to fix that which is broken. It is our Christian duty to confront the wolves who are “from [our] own group….and distort the truth” (2) to fit what they want to believe rather than abide by what God actually says.

             The Apostles tried to warn us! “…There will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them…” (3)

    When Paul wrote to Timothy, he explained how we must “preach the Word, when it is convenient and inconvenient; correct, rebuke, and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction” but that we must watch out, “for there will come a time when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (4)

           Not only did the Apostles try to warn us, but also in the past one hundred years, numerous Theologians have tried to educate us on what to look out for and what dangers we will actually be facing. One such Theologian was J. Machen Gresham who lived during the 1920’s. In his book, Christianity and Liberalism, he explains what happens as man increases in knowledge and begins to criticize and reject the convictions within:     

  “The industrial world of today has been produced not by blind forces of nature but by the conscious activity of the human spirit; it has been produced by the achievements of science. The outstanding feature of recent history is an enormous widening of human knowledge… In such an age, it is obvious that every inheritance from the past must be subject to searching criticism…so many convictions have had to abandoned that men have sometimes come to believe that all convictions must go. If such an attitude be justifiable, then no institution is faced by a stronger hostile presumption than the institution of the Christian religion, for no institution has based itself more squarely upon the authority of a by gone age.” (5)

        Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was another great theologian and martyr, spoke concerning the Church in America. Just before the dawn of WWII he came to America. Upon arriving, he was both torn and distressed. “He seemed cut off from a part of himself, divided from himself by an ocean, wandering the streets of New York like a ghost.”  He felt as though he was running away to a safe haven while his German comrades were being attacked.

One Sunday morning, while looking out is window, he could see a statue of Gabriel sitting atop Riverside Church. “He knew that the tepid liberal preaching at Riverside was extremely unlikely to meet with his approval, [but] he could not live one hundred yards away and not visit. Sooner or later, he must at least taste the lukewarm waters there.”

            "The head pastor was Harry Emerson Fosdick, and in 1939 he was the most famous liberal preacher in America; Riverside was America’s premier pulpit for liberalism. Bonhoeffer’s ears were burning to hear something from God, but what he found, he was not ready for.

             "The sermon’s text was from James, but not the James of the New Testament; it was from the American philosopher William James, whose works Bonhoeffer had studied nine years earlier. Upon hearing it, the usually gracious and tolerant Bonhoeffer was set off by this empty preaching, and in his diary he poured out his disgust:

‘I have no doubt at all that one day the storm will blow with full force on this religious hand out, if God Himself is still anywhere on the scene… The tasks for a real theologian over here are immeasurable. But only an American himself can shift all this rubbish and up till now there do not seem to be any about.’”(6)

         When I had first read this from Bonhoeffer, I was brought to tears. I look upon this country and the Church that should be ever so vibrant, and I am met with a God given anger, disappointment, and conviction. What Bonhoeffer said was true. And yet, we, the Church, must go a step further. First we must admit that we have succumbed to the cares of this world and the enemy lies within.

"The great menace to the Christian church today comes not from the enemies outside, but from the enemies within; it comes from the presence within the church of a type of faith and practice that is anti-Christian to the core."(5)

         Secondly, we must not be afraid to give evil a name. It is easy to define evil, but to actually label something as evil takes authority, and that authority comes from Jesus Christ. One of the greatest apologists who has ever lived was not scared to give evil a name. He tried to warn us by telling us what to look out for:

“The one thing I have learned: I know the Liberals…I know them well. I was one of them. And they are the most dangerous, insidious, and all pervading cult that’s loose in the United States right at this moment. They make the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons, and all the Mind Sciences, and the Occults look like Sunday school teachers. Do you know why? Because those other people are outside the church and these Devils are in it! And they are doing it in Jesus name. They do not believe in the Trinity. They do not believe in the deity of Christ. They do not believe in the Virgin Birth. They do not believe in the Vicarious Atonement. They do not believe the Bodily Resurrection. And they have grave doubts about whether Jesus will ever come back again and that the Bible itself is the Word of God. Yet I could give you a list of them that infest, and that’s the proper word, infest our Theological Seminaries, and our Church related schools, and our denominations. And this Theological flea infestation is ruining the life blood of the Church which is Evangelism!” (1)

  I know that there are those of you who would rather have me praising the Church and all that she has accomplished. I apologize, but I cannot ignore her tainted and corrupt actions. Quite frankly, I love Christ more than I love His church. I want this to be divisive. I want the church to separate and divide itself from the Wolves. 

 “It is often said that the divided condition of Christendom is an evil, and so it is. But the evil consists in the existence of the errors which cause the divisions and not at all in the recognition of those errors when once they exist.” (5)

I have compiled a list that will aid you in distinguishing a WOLF from a SHEEP. The things on this list are Biblical and I will defend each and every point. For the Wolf who knows and is fully aware of what he believes, we must THROW HIM OUT. (7) And yet, keep in mind that some may unknowingly agree with some of these points and be ignorant towards what it entails. We must “correct, rebuke, and encourage [them]-with great patience and careful instruction.” (4)

For those of you who trust me, I charge you to spread the word. Tell the Wolves that their time has come to an end. Tell them that God is our first love and we shall stand by His Word and defend it. And yet, I must warn you. If you agree with this Note and you so desire to “share” it… be forewarned. You will be attacked. It is inevitable. A wolf does not run when it is cornered. Are you ready to defend what you believe? They are trying to take away from the authority of the Scripture. We must hold the line! Once the wolves have broken through the Scripture....the battle is lost. "This is where we hold them! This is where we fight! This is where they die!" (8)  Christians! Pick up your swords and your shields and meet me on the battlefield…meet me at Thermopylae.

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 Work Cited

1. Dr. Walter Martin 1970’s-80’s

2. Acts 20

3. 2 Peter 2

4. 2 Timothy 4

5. J. Machen Gresham, Christianity and Liberalism, 1920

6. Brian Metaxes, Bonhoeffer

7. John 2: 13-17

8. King Leonidas