The value of a hard question is very great. It forces us to focus on how we would answer it. And it might cause us to reflect on it, honestly and somberly. This Christian life of ours was never meant to be easy.
The Courage of Our Convictions
I have written about courage not because I imagine that I have it, but because I know I am weak in that area. This would be one of those hard questions I have to ask myself. It is very sobering to know that in Revelation cowards are the first to be thrown into the lake of fire. God is not mocked, nor is He fooled. He hates cowardice and so should we, especially our own. A valuable theological lesson for us all is that we must hate what God hates and love what He loves. I note that the KJV obscures the word “coward,” not even using the word but instead softening it to “timid” or “faint hearted.” And yet in the Scriptures the lost are referred to as cowards. So cowardice in Scripture is a big deal, a very big deal. It is said of God that He takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.¹
How do we possibly survive with all that the world has to throw at us — with all that is being fed to us by the influencers at work — without the courage of our convictions?
Courage is rare — exceedingly rare. It seems that we all have a predisposition towards cowardice. Perhaps we are all cowards at heart. But we must not remain so. That is a freedom we don’t have as Christians. Being timid (!) in the faith is not an option. Being part of the herd is not an option. It might be one of Satan’s biggest lies — to hide from us the fact that courage is required.
Think about what fear does: “The fear of human opinion disables”² (The Message). As Scripture says, fear of man is a snare, a trap — we are trapped by what others think. And yet, more than 500 times we are told not to be afraid. Fear paralyzes, inhibits, and excuses us from doing what we should. It is like an acid which corrodes us and leaves us disabled.
Dangerous Detours
Courage is not shown in maintaining the status quo and peace at all costs. Courage is certainly not in “keeping your head down.” I am confident that Jesus would not approve of trudging through life with your head down. According to Scripture we enter through a narrow gate (Matt. 7:13), but some are continually and persistently and aggressively trying to widen that narrow gate. There is no widening of that narrow gate allowed biblically, even though we are being bombarded by efforts to be inclusive.
Pastors are in danger here as they are subject to “keeping the peace” and maintaining the equilibrium of the group, but as one person said to us: “My pastor is bought and paid for.” Which is to say that the pastor will not go against what his elders instruct him either to say, or not to say. Which is to say that he cannot preach the Truth unless it is acceptable to them. Which is to say that pastors, too, must work to overcome cowardice and to develop courage.
We Must Not…
One of our most serious responsibilities as Christians is to discern good and evil. Scripture emphasizes most strongly and repeatedly that we must not call evil good or good evil. The discernment necessary to judge what is good and what is evil seems to be a required addition to our character.
One of the Christian’s gravest responsibilities is to discern when he is being lied to. An evil that looks “neutral” or “tolerable” or “necessary” should be seen for what it is — evil. We must seriously address Scripture’s emphasis and in fact, its commands: not to call evil good and good evil. I was actually quite shocked when I first saw the importance of this in Scripture. “One who justifies the wicked and one who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the LORD.”³ We must not be caught in that camp. This instruction is repeated several times over.⁴ “Abomination” is a very strong word. It cannot be a part of a Christian’s conduct. “Blessed are those who have no reason to condemn themselves because of what they approve.” Please meditate on those words.
But wait! We have a dilemma here! We are told both by society and by many Christian leaders that judging is the very thing we must not do! If there is anything more widely known than the ubiquitous “Do not judge,” I don’t know what it is. Along with it is the unbiblical “Who am I to judge?”
Doing Justice
Consider the following Scripture: “Do not judge and you will not be judged.”⁵ You will hear it over and over and over again. And they are Jesus’ words! But Jesus’ intention is that we judge rightly, not that we condemn. Jesus is warning against self-righteousness and hypocrisy. Have you noticed that those saying that one mustn’t judge are in fact making a judgment? We must judge to discern the true from the false. We do not believe that Jesus said one thing but practiced another. Just a few verses after saying this, Jesus speaks of not throwing your pearls before swine — which would, of course, indicate that you discern if they are swine or not. Think of this: What kind of moral and ethical vacuum are you operating in when you refuse to judge? And what disaster there would be if we were to misunderstand Jesus? (As we have done.) The idea that we not judge between Truth and error would lead to a kind of mental anemia, and even more seriously, to turning our backs on Truth.
Could it just be that we have this all wrong? The popular culture in tandem with many church leaders has waved away God’s requirement for discerning judgment. But in reality, justice has to do with love. Loving justice and desiring to have a role in it are the natural end products of hating evil, which is commanded for us: “Hate evil and love what is good.”⁶ Hatred of evil is in fact, according to Romans 12:9, the mark of a true Christian, and please note that it cannot happen without judgment as to what is evil.
The entire Bible is a book about how to judge. It tells us what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong, what is moral and what is immoral, what to practice and what to stay away from. Doing justice is not a forbidden, angry sort of behavior. In fact, it goes hand in hand with walking humbly and loving kindness! It is far from being unloving, harsh, and finger pointing. “What does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”⁷
Is Judging a Moral Obligation?
One writer⁸ points out that it is on the subject of homosexuality that many Christians fall apart and want to find harmony between a Christian view and a worldly view. No such harmony exists. No blessing of both sides exists. He uses the example of standing on earth at the same time as standing on the moon — it is impossible. In agreeing with society’s morality, one automatically leaves the Christian view behind, because the two are in direct opposition to each other. Attempts to appease, harmonize, soften, or to make the unbiblical excuse that we are not to judge on such matters will open us to the charge of cowardice. How so? Because we have at this point compromised Scripture so as to fit in with current thought. Hard question: What are the demands of your faith? What is your moral obligation here?
Regrettably we have arrived at the point where this has to be said: opposing evil is not wrong. Not to judge is to give a pass to a condition or situation or behavior that the Bible condemns.
When you think about it, it’s not really judging that people have a problem with — it is judging negatively. For example, hardly anyone would get upset if something positive is said about another’s behavior, even though in doing so we have passed judgment. But that kind of judgment which is affirming is seen as OK. Only when a judgment is disapproving is there a problem and you will hear, “We are not to judge.”
As we must train and practice and train and practice and train and practice in discernment, so must we train in right judgment. Think of Olympic athletes and the countless hours dedicated to their training. How can we become fit for the huge responsibility and reward of judging individuals and even angels in the Kingdom? We must exercise sound judgment in this life so as to grow in wisdom and exercise that wisdom in the future Kingdom.
Scripture indicates that we have gone wrong in failing to judge error. And we have gone wrong in failing to judge ourselves.⁹
In an effort to protect myself from being misheard and/or misunderstood — please know:
- Superficial judgment is wrong.
- Hypocritical judgment is wrong.
- Harsh, unforgiving judgment is wrong.
- Judging someone’s motives is wrong.
- Judging as to whether someone is saved is wrong.
We are “always to be gentle to everyone.”¹⁰ Probably the most important aspect of all of this is that it must be done with humility and with love.
A Big Surprise
One of the greatest gifts a parent could give his/her children is the idea and example that it is to their good that they are different from the crowd. It would be a blessing to drum into their heads that it is good that they are different from the rest of the world, that they stand apart from the crowd. I know that this is very difficult because the pull is to be just like everybody else. Our culture values conformity. Our God does not! Not only are we not to act as everybody else, but the stakes have been raised so that we are told, “Do not think like everybody else.”¹¹ Strength of character is shown by standing against the crowd.
Here is the surprise: “The word holy, then, does not mean particularly religious. What it actually does mean, essentially, is ‘different.’ It speaks of something or someone being distinctive, set apart and separate.”¹² In our pursuit of life — or as our Constitution says, pursuit of happiness — we must not, we dare not adopt the attitudes and ways of those who do not reverence God.
“For Israel, then, being the people of Yahweh meant being different too. When God said, ‘You shall be holy because I, the LORD your God am holy,’ what it meant, colloquially, was ‘You must be a different kind of people because I am a different kind of God’…Israel would be a nation among other nations, but they were to be holy – i.e. different from the rest of the nations.”¹³
There is great danger in being in the majority. Let us never forget that it was the majority, the crowd who crucified Jesus!
ABORTION and Moral Clarity
A couple of desperately hard questions: Could good people bless evil? Could Christians bless evil?!
I repeat that I must continually fight against cowardice in myself. I am not holding myself up as a model. But I CAN see where courage is NOT. Courage is not in any church that refuses to speak out on the horror of abortion. There is no case for abortion. I feel compelled to include this whenever I speak or write because abortion is “the most significant, serious, dreadful reality in the history of the world.”¹⁴ I have to stand against this evil. Abortion is not just a sin; it is murder. What have we come to if you do not or cannot say that abortion is murder, and that it is sinful, that it is perhaps the greatest sin any human being can commit? What, as Christians, do we say about this greatest moral evil of all time?
Believers used to draw hard lines and not cross them, but it feels like that was something from yesteryear. What has happened here is that the focus in church is to make people feel welcomed and loved (and that is important), but the loving action of helping them to see the evil in our world, and warning them to hear and fear and become aware of their sinful nature (with a view to their repentance) is missing. The tone has changed, revealing a monumental shift in the philosophy of church going.
Many pastors have chosen not to speak out against the horror of abortion; they are hesitant and reluctant to become involved. I am struck by the Isaiah verse which says, “Don’t ask me to get involved” (Isa. 2:7b). Does that not sound current? “All of them [your leaders]…refuse to defend the orphans and the widows” (Isa. 1:23b).
I have to wonder — if pastors don’t stand for the innocent, who should do it? And isn’t it true that a few honest words can change the direction of someone’s life? Could it be that acceptance and toleration¹⁵ of even the thought of abortion is an indication, a fruit of a reprobate mind? (Remember our Moloch-worshipping history.) Ongoing sin causes the mind and the conscience to shut down. Might it be that the hideous act of abortion is in itself a judgment?
Listen to the words of the man who led the abortion culture in the U.S. He oversaw and performed tens of thousands of abortions. After he repented, he refers to his previous life as moral squalor, and he admits to making up and promoting the lies that Roe v. Wade used. The whole of the case was founded on lies. Lies are a feature of evil. Bernard Nathanson says that he fell into shameless debauchery. Listen to his words as he describes his journey into the Satanic world of abortion:
“As I look back across the 25 years separating me from the revolting extravaganza playing itself out on the bodies of pregnant women and their slaughtered babies, I am struck by the moral and spiritual vacuum at the core of this fantastic operation. And yet the thing was so obviously sordid. Why couldn’t we make the link between the ethical and the moral, between the shoddy practices and shabby practitioners, the evident greed and callous motives, between the crassness of the enterprise and those involved in it, between all these ethical indicators and the grotesque immorality of the act itself?”¹⁶
The Greek word brephos is used in Scripture of both children in the womb and those outside the womb. There is no difference. Pre-born children are not disposable. Without question the Bible recognizes life in the womb.
Biblically those who do not oppose the sin of abortion are as guilty as those who actually perform the killing. Could it be a theological deformity to think otherwise?
I hasten to add that repentance and God’s wonderful forgiveness cover all who have been involved in abortion and have repented.
Silence Please — OR NOT!
Could silence be a violation of our faith? Are we free to overlook murder or other evil in our midst?
Reason and speech are gifts of God to enable us to think. There is little that is more dangerous for a Christian than indifference. Indifference is a Laodicean quality which is not pleasing to God and it comes with perils. As we are warned not to be lukewarm, i.e. it is better to be either hot or cold, so it is with evil. How can one be indifferent to the murder of an innocent life by way of abortion?
Yes, in this country we have the right to remain silent, but I would argue — not as a Christian. Why? Because as Martin Luther King taught, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”¹⁷ This architecture of silence is unbiblical. As we must watch ourselves and our doctrine, so we must do what is advised here: “See at any rate, that I do not lend myself [my support] to the wrong which I condemn.”¹⁸ We do lend ourselves to evil unless we speak out against it.
This is a powerful picture: “And yet even in the face of this abomination, the churches of America, the pastors of America, are silent. Where is the cry of outrage? Where is the indignation of the people of God?”¹⁹ Is there any way under God’s heaven that you can stand for or defend the taking of sixty million innocent lives? Or even one?!
We are all aware of those who impose their views on others. I’m not talking about them. I’m talking about Jesus-centered people. Shouldn’t people know what we believe — and how fervently we believe it? “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”²⁰
These are some of the most profound words ever spoken. “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.”²¹
Conclusion
We must build practices that keep us from falling prey to those who are attempting to deceive us. As our world has distanced itself from the Bible, it becomes even more important to be courageous in standing for our beliefs.
God wants far more from us than just good deeds. He wants our participation in the faith. He wants our dedicated minds, our passionate stand for Truth. God’s people should respond. And we are to share what understanding we come to from practicing discernment and critical thinking about these subjects.
It is right that God’s people raise their voices in protest to godless trends. It is right that they join the urgent battle to save those unborn lives that are fashioned in the image of God. Doing less would be tantamount to surrender; it is capitulation to the “evil one.”
Again, it was never meant to be easy. The battle for Truth is on, and we must be in the fight. And so, one of those hard questions: What is your participation with the faith?
And one last hard question: If we don’t have the same faith as Jesus, what is the point? Churches can manufacture belief systems that seem to work, but at the point of comparison to Jesus, they fall so short that Jesus doesn’t even recognize them. We must constantly be on the alert and compare our faith to that of Jesus’ teaching. We are not free to make a substitution for what Jesus said is the greatest commandment.
We are called to witness, which means more than just to see. It means to speak. Speaking is critical because it is a way of safeguarding Truth. Bearing witness is not optional. Integrity demands that we do so. We are not allowed to dodge the hard stuff.
Silence is unacceptable. We are to be “acceptable in His sight.” Remember the thought as expressed in Psalm 19:14: “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, O LORD.”
I will finish with this: One of the very practical ways that we can use Truth is to teach others to be fair and wise and discerning, and to be active in the faith.
Jude 3: “I find it necessary to write and appeal to you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”
The bottom line: Cowards don’t contend for the faith!
Let us proceed with courage.
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