Christianity is a fighting religion. Did you know that?
I know, I know. You’ve known Jesus as the Prince of Peace, the guy who turns the other cheek. And that’s true, but it’s only part of the story.
“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”
Matthew 10: 34-35 NKJV
Peace comes after the war, and we couldn’t be more at war than we are right now. There are demonic forces at work in our lands and God is crystal clear about how He feels about it, all of it. God draws prominent lines in the sand, and is adamant that stepping over them leads to death — not sadness, not inconvenience, not a momentary strain. Nope, cross God’s lines and you’ll find yourself in the fast lane toward death, spiritual and otherwise.
Did they mention any of this the last time you were at church?
The fire and brimstone messages of the past are mostly scorned these days, and there’s some validity in that because we don’t want to paint God as a unsatisfiable tyrant when He’s anything but. Yet equating Him with some go-along to get-along pansy more concerned with keeping the peace isn’t biblical, and woe on us when we forget who we’re talking about.
This isn’t always easy to hear because many people have an unholy misconception of who God is, what Jesus represents, and why He came. Do you know why Jesus came?
For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.
John 18:37 ESV
Jesus came to dish the truth regardless of whether or not he was liked; he was also mission-focused on upsetting the status quo, because the status quo of his time was marked by brazen corruption, unchecked evil, and moral compromise at all levels of leadership, even (if not especially) within the church.
Are we testifying to the truth with our employers, in our school board meetings, and in our daily snippets online? Or, are we keeping quiet on social media (and even up on the pulpit) for fear of being de-platformed, laying aside our weapons because the cost of war is simply too unpopular?
Let’s set the record straight. There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace – and you can have it in the next second – surrender.
Ronald Reagan, A Time For Choosing, 27 October, 1964
For a year now churches all over the world have been shutting their doors, bowing to the dictates of man out of fear. Many businesses and leaders have and are compromising their convictions in order to secure financial stability, or to stay the hand of the mob. I can’t exactly blame the secular world for bending a knee to keep the peace, but Christians know better. Or at least they should.
“For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.”
Mark 8:35-38
The world decided that churches were non-essential and bullied them. All but a few closed their doors, some were afraid of how the world would perceive them if they dared challenge the narrative of the threat. They allowed the State to dictate the terms of their existence. And guess what? The world didn’t care. It cheered them on and celebrated their capitulation to the fears of man, and in some places, it did so with no intention of ever letting them open again. But God cared, because social distancing and isolation are pretty much the antithesis of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and people died as a result of those unholy mandates.
They die still.
But the world applauded their virtue, and those churches really did their part to keep the peace. Never mind the cost.
This perspective of wanting to be loved, needed, relied upon, approved of, or appreciated by the world leads to compromises, and very soon (if we preach at all) we end up watering down our messages enough for the world to tolerate us. This is evil, and it’s evidence of a political spirit that manifests itself in a desire to be liked.
“The political spirit wants to deceive Jesus followers into believing that in order to be effective for Jesus we need to be liked by the world. They end up compromising conviction and truth in the name of love… That in order to be effective leaders you need to be quiet with things that create lines in the sand. The church has to break up with its fear of being disliked by people.”
Ryan Hart, 2/21/21
In case you haven’t noticed, the world has launched an all-out assault against the church, Christ followers, biblical principles, standards of right vs. wrong, and pretty much everything God is passionate about. Has your church stood up against mandates violating your Constitutional right to freedom of assembly? Have you met in groups to worship or lay hands on the sick, regardless of what some bureaucrat says? Have you muzzled yourself and your children — literally and figuratively — in order to not rock the boat, to stay in the good graces of the world, to keep the peace?
Dr. Robert Barnes of Princeton University challenges his students on whether or not they would have bravely spoken out against slavery, and worked tirelessly in the cause of freeing those enslaved.
I respond to the students’ assurances that they would have been vocal opponents of slavery by saying that I will credit their claims if they can show me evidence of the following: that in leading their lives today they have embraced causes that are unpopular among their peers and stood up for the rights of victims of injustice whose very humanity is denied, and where they have done so knowing (1) that it would make THEM unpopular with their peers, (2) that they would be loathed and ridiculed by wealthy, powerful, and influential individuals and institutions in our society; (3) that it would cost them friendships and cause them to be abandoned and even denounced by many of their friends, (4) that they would be called nasty names, and (5) that they would possibly even be denied valuable educational and professional opportunities as a result of their moral witness. In short, my challenge to them is to show me where they have at significant risk to themselves and their futures stood up for a cause that is unpopular in elite sectors of our culture today.”
Dr. Robert George, Princeton University
There are lines in the sand. It’s past time to decide which side you are going to stand on because God is sifting His people into groupings of those who will testify to the truth no matter the cost, and those who would rather keep the peace and stay in the good graces of friends and worldly masters who are committed to their destruction.
He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Revelation 21: 7-8
Peace is so much easier than war, for a while. The devil is in the terms, and we’re seeing how taxing those terms can be, but it’s not like we were never warned:
If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand – the ultimatum. And what then?… Someday when the time comes to deliver the ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary because by that time we will have weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically.
Ronald Reagan, A Time For Choosing, 27 October, 1964
The price of war is great, but the price of false peace is far greater. It’s time to remember that.
You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, “There is a price we will not pay.” There is a point beyond which they must not advance. You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on Earth, or we will sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.”
Ronald Reagan, A Time For Choosing, 27 October, 1964
Perhaps it’s time to dig out another old adage from the box and ask a question that is out of vogue in this socially responsible era of forced unity: What would Jesus do? New situations are always going to seem complex but the answers to them are not. God doesn’t change, and His answers are written, and clear. We just need to apply them.
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You can watch the full speech A Time For Choosing by Ronald Reagan here.
This is one of the best sermons I’ve heard in years, by Ryan Hart, and quoted in the post above: