The Scourge Of Racism
Paperback Book
Released October 5, 2023
Get Your Copy
Now In The Strong Man Store!
It is not easy living as a Christian in the world on a normal day. It is much harder doing so in days that have quickly become anything but normal! We Christians face all of the same heightened challenges, adversities and hardships as our unsaved neighbors here in America and abroad during the current global Coronavirus pandemic. In a biblical worldview, our understanding of how and why such things are happening and intimate relationship with the Almighty God ultimately behind them are supposed to help us cope better than most.1 However, as hoarding toilet paper says much about the nation’s character, so the constant exhortation not to fear from preachers about that of Christians.
This is especially amazing to me since so many Christians profess to fearlessly believe in a sudden “rapture” that if it were to happen as imagined, would be an event so jarring to their families and others left behind in the world there would be no repentance or recovery in this Protestant version of purgatory, only fatal despair. As bad as it is at this point, we Christians are still here en masse and will be until death by whatever means or Christ’s unexpected sensory overloading appearance to deliver His persecuted remnant yet alive in a calloused, wonder weary world fully given over to evil. This is as the Bible objectively read and applied foretells (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12)!
As authentic faith in God has always been required of His righteous ones on any day to successfully resist the devil’s “fiery darts” that include fear, strength will be equally required to stand fast through all of what is coming upon the world going forward (1 Corinthians 16:13; Ephesians 6:16, NKJV).2 Human beings do not naturally possess the spiritual strength necessary to long endure and persevere through prolonged hardships, adversities, troubles and tribulations that are common to our life experience on earth much less the cataclysmic events foretold in His Word that God in His timing is bringing upon the world as the birth pains of His Kingdom.
Praise be to God He has built the availability of His strength into the human experience expressly for those in relationship with Him as redeemed sons, disciples and servants by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 3:14-16)! Drawing upon and living moment by moment out of the superior strength God by the Holy Spirit supplies to our spirit is our normative experience by design. We were made to be indwelt by God forever, but sin caused separation from Him (that is, spiritual death) to be mankind’s shared reality (Ephesians 2:1). Taking the initiative, God in Christ has restored His life and strength to us who believe in Him (John 10:10; Colossians 1:9-14).
The strength of God is without contest supernatural as is all of biblical Christianity and unique to Him. Out of His inexhaustible omnipotence God through Christ created and sustains the heavens and the earth for us, His eternal sons, assembled to Him and Christ as Lord--every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in His image (Isaiah 45:11-13; Colossians 1:15-23)!3 This same power as His strength is constantly renewed in us as we by faith purposely wait on the Lord for and actively seek it in times of need (Isaiah 40:27-31; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10). We are to even gain a bold faith in Christ from being repeatedly strengthened by Him (Philippians 4:13; 2 Timothy 4:16-18).
Through the supernatural strength our God supplies us then, we are more than amply equipped to please Him and do His will; to cope with the everyday trials of life and those more severe that come suddenly which at first glance seem to be overwhelming. Nevertheless, through His strength we are enabled to stand if we keep our heads and call on Him in faith; not giving into unbelief and the fear that somehow what we face is bigger than God. As it is written, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” And again, “For with God nothing will be impossible,” (Genesis 18:14a; Luke 1:37, NKJV). And since by the Word of prophecy we have known and know what God is up to and what is coming upon the world, we are all the more ready for extraordinary events that occur (Mark 13:23).
Indeed, as our Lord warned, far worse events to include the global persecution of Christians on the earth and in the heavens that have never taken place before are coming (Luke 21:7-12, 25-28). Are we already fainting in fear with this Coronavirus? As He taught in the Gospels and shows in His Revelation He recently led me to write about,4 Christ expects us to proclaim the Gospel and witness Him until He returns; persevering to the end in strength, obedience to His Word and loyalty to Him (Luke 21:13-19; Revelation 3:8, 11). Therefore, in faith and with “this treasure” of the Spirit of life and strength in us, let us like the faithful apostles and saints before and around us overcome this world and its ruler as well as ace the tests to doubt God through fear (2 Corinthians 4:6-11; 1 John 4:4).5
1 Taking Bible prophecy seriously as we ought, no Christian should be shocked at the increasingly severe events in our world. See my September 29, 2019 post, God
Almighty In A 21st Century World, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
2 For more on standing fast in the times, read my November 25, 2018 post, Standing In The Evil Day, under the category, Encouragement.
3 I write about the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get a print copy or digital download of the book
at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only). You can also get a print copy in the Strong Man Store.
4 See the two-part post beginning February 16, 2020, Christ’s Message To His Faithful, under the categories, Bible Prophecy and Encouragement.
5 The Lord led me to proclaim a timely six message series, The Hour Of Testing, now available in the Strong Man Store that instructs Christians on God’s biblically taught
purposes behind why He tests His people and fully explores the prophetic implications tied to the coming hour of trial our Lord speaks of in Revelation 3:10.
Generally speaking, from creation men have been physically stronger than women. Though in these latter days, there are a small number of women that grotesquely buff up through weight training and are stronger than the average man, God designed men to be naturally bigger and stronger than women as part of His will for their roles and responsibilities of headship to include providing for and protecting them. The value of brute strength with fighting skill is seen in men such as Samson, a judge and David, a king of ancient Israel both enabled by God. David also had his mighty men of war, strong and capable like so many of history (Judges 13-16; 2 Samuel 22:29-51, 23:8-39).
However, the physical strength and abilities of men that even many churches seem to only value for “honey do” projects and security around their facilities are not the extent of which we were designed. Man was also designed in the divine image and likeness to display the exclusive, exceedingly superior spiritual strength of God! Man does not naturally possess God’s strength, but God can and has supplied it to select men in history by the Holy Spirit! David was one and before him as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, Joshua, who God after Moses commands: ‘“Be strong and of good courage for...I will be with you,’” (Deuteronomy 31:7, 23, NKJV).1
The attempt by Roman Procurator, Pilate, to appease the angry Jewish mob in first century Jerusalem, Israel led to his now famous exclamation to end matters, “Behold, the Man,” referring to Jesus of Nazareth! Jesus stood by him and before the crowd of Roman soldiers and Jews with their religious leaders bloody from being beaten up, scourged and mocked as “King of the Jews” with a crown of thorns forced down on His head and in a purple robe. But because of what had brought about this extraordinary moment, the crowd was not having any of Pilate’s concessionary punishment. The leaders especially wanted nothing short of Jesus’ death (John 19:1-6, NKJV)!
The death of Jesus is what the Jewish religious establishment and their leaders had been longing for and plotting a long time (John 5:15-18, 7:1, 25-32, 45-49, 10:30-33, 11:45-53). Scripture tells us these men that supposedly knew and honored God resented, envied and hated Jesus because He spoke the truth exposing their hypocritical religiosity with authority outside of their own (Matthew 15:1-20, 21:23-27, 23:1-33, 27:15-18; John 15:22-25).2 For this reason the Lord Jesus portrays all such religious men not as relationally part of Him or acting on His behalf, but the world system governed by Satan (John 14:30, 15:18-21, 16:1-4). The religious are of the world!
Jesus, on the other hand, had most excellently displayed the perfect blend of a man’s physical and God’s spiritual strength in pressing Heaven’s Kingdom cause in His ministry. He had stood toe to toe with Satan in the wilderness temptation, summoned select men to Himself from under his dominion for training to do as He and liberated His people from his works prevailing in every instance (Matthew 4; Luke 10:1-20)! Jesus also withstood the desires for Him of His family and disciples (Matthew 12:46-50, 16:13-23). As well, He physically took on the Temple merchandisers and overcame the efforts of religious leaders to undermine and discredit Him (Mark 11:15-19).
After displaying the awesome supernatural power of God to easily have overcome His mortal arresters without laying a hand on them (John 18:1-11), the Lord Jesus then began to show those that tried Him the amazing inner strength of Person He possessed (Luke 22:63-23:22; John 19:7-15). As I also write in my book, in all that the Jewish religious leaders, Herod, Pilate and their troops did to Jesus that morning, He did not break under the pressure or threaten to retaliate--He took it! He remained strong in spirit as they crucified and taunted Him on the cross. After six hours of suffering and not crying out in protest, He died on His own terms (John 19:16-30). Truly, in Jesus we have the ultimate display and fullness of strength in man designed by God--the Strong Man of God forever!
The final proof of this is His eternal resurrection from the heretofore, impossible grip of death three days later!3 And because Jesus lives, now, we who have repented and believed the Gospel about Him--that He died for our sins, was buried and rose again to redeem us to God--have through forgiveness been granted to have the strength of God on display in us too (Isaiah 53; Luke 24:44-49; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4; Colossians 1:9-14)! Indeed, of first order men are taught and commanded like Joshua to “Be strong in the Lord” for daily living (2 Corinthians 12:7-10; Ephesians 6:10; Philippians 4:13, NKJV).4 But due to satanic strongholds of deceit, many churches reject the Bible’s strong man of God teaching. The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
(I will be taking Resurrection Sunday my spiritual birthday off to celebrate. Lord willing, my next post will be on April 8th. May the strength of Christ be yours this Palm Sunday and forever!)
1The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man
Store.
2 Also deceived by and captive to the spirit of religion, professed Christian men in their churches throughout history to this hour have for the same reasons and in like man-
ner sought to harm God’s faithful. Truly, nearing my forty-first year as a Christian I have had to contend with such men far too often; men who while outwardly acting
pious saying and doing religious stuff, inwardly are driven by the sinful flesh and spiritually dead having no genuine relationship with God or they willfully quench the Spirit
disconnecting from Him to carry out their evil deeds. Either way, God knows their hearts and without repentance, will judge them accordingly for their wickedness (Psalm
58:9-11; Romans 2:4-11; 2 Timothy 4:14).
3 Explore the staggering implications of death’s end and immortality in the aftermath of Christ’s resurrection in a four message Strong Man Of God Audio Series, Christ’s
Resurrection, Death’s End available exclusively in the Strong Man Store.
4 Read the February 22, 2015 post, Strong Through God’s Strength! under the category, The Cause.
The march to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the end of this world as we have known it under the dominion of evil is moving just as it has been foretold in the ‘“Scripture of Truth,’” (Daniel 10:18-21, NKJV). As part of this march, I stand in awe of the sovereign God who in wisdom has given men the knowledge to develop technologically at a faster pace in the last 200 years than at any time in all of the millennia before. The telegraph to computers and cell phones, the first automobile to space flight, modern appliances and robotics; all attest to this truth in serving the divine end time purposes and proving that still--regardless of technological progress, man’s chief problem is sin since its works through him have not abated, but only intensified (Joel 2:1-11; Revelation 9:13-21).
With the merciful heart of God, we do not rejoice at the foretold troubles coming upon this world because of sin. However, Christians are not supposed to be falling apart either. Indeed, many professing Christians and their leaders are even in denial and behave as if everything is going (and should continue) as it always has. They fear the future and do not by faith “look up” (Luke 21:28, NKJV) as God intends--having given us His prophetic Word as advance knowledge--because they in disobedience love this present world and their carefully laid plans and dreams rooted in it (Luke 9:23). As I present in this edited 2013 blog repost, God has raised up this Ministry among others to call the weak to His strength as those alone that will endure to receive the promised salvation.
Originally Posted October 6, 2013
It is so very heart breaking to see people all over our nation and world coming unhinged at the slightest provocation; unglued and falling apart at the seams leading to acts of rage and violence in these times of stress. It appears that the natural self-control and fear of consequences resident in most human beings that serve as a restraint to injury to self and others is dissipating and the Bible gives us an important reason why. I do sympathize with the provocations and stresses of life in this world that can lead to the mental and emotional states of mind persons get to that cause them to become unhinged and unglued.
However, the Word of God plainly teaches that these things are so in these latter days because He is allowing mankind in the main--that has spent much of nearly the last two millennia rejecting the Gospel--to now have it their way in the face of His coming wrath (Romans 1:18-32). God (who alone has been evil’s Restrainer) is permitting lawlessness through the venting of humanity’s natural sinful impulses and the instigating, pressuring work of demons to steadily increase and eventually commonly “abound” out of control because this is the kind of kingdom men as sinners choose when they reject the righteous Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 1 John 3:4, NKJV).
To add to the misery of the God haters and rebels in these latter days, the God of creation that created it for man, is causing it to convulse violently against its fallen rulers in anticipatory birth pains of its restoration in peace under the immortal sons of God (Mark 13:8; Luke 21:10-11; Romans 8:19-22)! As a result, anxious fear about what is coming upon the earth will also be added to the life stresses that are causing people to now fall apart and soon, to die from mass heart failures (Luke 21:25-26). Sadly, among such persons are many professing to be Christians.
It is in this context of the present stresses and those foretold still to come that God has called forth our strong man of God cause. We are not just about a book and brand. Jesus Christ is the Strong Man of God demonstrated by His life, death and resurrection to immortality! Men from Adam’s son, Seth, have known the strength and blessing that comes from calling “on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25-26, NKJV) and the Lord Himself has commanded men to “be strong” from ancient times (Deuteronomy 31:23, NKJV).
Now, though, it is at “the ends of the ages” that calling on the name of the Lord and being strong in the strength He supplies to His faithful and obedient ones is of the utmost prophetic urgency and absolutely imperative (1 Corinthians 10:11, NKJV). For as I have written previously (in blogs and my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics) and will continue to proclaim with Scripture in the face of the world’s escalating stresses as well as hatred and persecution of Christians, only the strong in Christ will persevere to the end and eternal glory (Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13)!1
The strength supplied to His aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ is nothing short of divine power through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:14-16)! Thus, God’s strength is not a human emotion or moment of euphoria. God’s power is of the real, continuing spiritual substance of His eternal being that created and upholds the universe! And so, the great apostle writes again, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” the source Scripture for the slogan of Strong Man Ministries: Making Men Eternally Strong (Ephesians 6:10, NKJV)!
In His strength combined with the whole armor of God which includes the “shield of faith,” aspiring strong men and great women of God are expected to stand against all manner of adversity as well as “the wiles” and attacks of the devil and his “spiritual hosts” working through willing human agencies in these evil days just as our Lord Jesus did (John 16:32-33; Ephesians 6:11-18; 1 John 5:4-5, NKJV). Christians from a biblical perspective, then, are not supposed to become unhinged, unglued or panicked to the death during the course of what we see happening in nor defect from Christ seeking escape from suffering to the world.
We stand firm in our trust in Christ and the very real supernatural strength our God supplies to us as aspiring strong men and great women of God. We also continue to act as a moral people walking in the righteousness of Christ and to the bitter end proclaim and witness the Gospel about Him and His coming Kingdom. Unless, therefore, there is a Holy Ghost fired movement such as ours to help men and women professing to be Christians become aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ, many will perish in the swift rolling tide of increasing lawlessness, troubles, demonic activity and the violent convulsions of creation coming upon this world with divine permission. In spite of this, a “falling away” is foretold (2 Thessalonians, 2:3, NKJV).2
Nevertheless, in the meantime, if we restore many men, their families and communities for even a short season before the darkest days arrive, it has all been worth it. So, we preach the Gospel compelling men to come to Christ and in coming to Him, become strong men of God in His image (Romans 8:29)! Pastors and churches that are guilty this is your cue: get out of the way; stop resisting us in this mission clinging to your comfy lives supported by the mindset of manmade Christianity the religion in the old paradigm of God’s permitted temporary existence. Repent if you will and in this new paradigm where Christianity the religion of men in their own strength is plainly revealed to be marked out for divine destruction (Isaiah 47:8-15; Revelation 18:1-8), stand with and welcome our cause, Ministry and biblically rooted message (Acts 4:23-31; Romans 8:31-39; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17; 3 John 5-8). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
1 Purchase my book at any major internet bookseller or the Strong Man Store on our Web Site, www.thestrongmanofgod.org.
2 See the February 2, 2014 blog, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy to learn more about this coming event.
If the cities or names of the seven churches of Asia addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ have any importance at all as to why He chose them, surely, the church at Philadelphia does as a name. Most commentators translate Philadelphia from the Greek as “brotherly love;” a name given to the city by an ancient king to honor his brother. Consistent with this, the Lord’s message to the church there was to His faithful Christian brothers that included those of His Jewish heritage. This is clear to see in the message that would have excited a Jewish Christian more than any Gentile given its quote of Scripture with Jewish specific application, experiences and prophetic references.
The Lord opens His message: “These things says He who is holy, He who is true....” Though all Christians would (or at least should) perk up with a message from the Lord opening like that, the Jewish Christian with joy immediately understands Him to be authenticating Himself as the promised Holy One of God, His Anointed, Son and Himself true God (Psalm 16:8-11, 20:6-9, 89:19-37; Isaiah 7:10-14, 9:6-7, 10:20, 12:4-6; Luke 1:30-35, 2:8-11; John 1:1-9, 14-18, 17:1-3)! Further, to ensure His identifying credentials were not missed, He quotes from Scripture: “He who has ‘the key of David,’ He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens,” (Isaiah 22:22; Revelation 3:7, NKJV).
In quoting from Isaiah’s passage originally spoken about the man that controlled access to king Hezekiah, the Lord instantly affirms its prophetic application to and fulfillment in Himself as the One who exclusively controls access to God His Father (John 14:6). All Christians are supposed to understand why He is the only way to God, but only Jewish saints painfully appreciate how important this is when their own heritage is attempting to block access to God through their common historical and traditional means such as worship at the Temple (destroyed by this time) and the synagogue.5 As in all of the churches, the Lord knew the individual works of those at Philadelphia.
The Lord greatly encourages the individual saints and especially His Jewish kindred of this church by setting “an open door” before them He says, “no one can shut” in applying His quote from Isaiah 22:22. He is doing this He says because they “have a little strength, have kept My Word, and have not denied My name,” (Revelation 3:8, NKJV). As I wrote earlier, historically, the wide river of the Jewish “remnant according to the election of grace” the apostle Paul wrote of (Romans 11:1-5, NKJV) narrowed to a tiny brook with very little influence in Christianity after the 1st century as the Lord here acknowledges and appears to prophetically forecast as their foreseeable future.
The historically oldest of Christians, though tiny, faithful Jewish saints were and would be dogged in displaying spiritual strength, keeping the Lord’s Word and not denying Him through the unimaginable pressure of persecution from family, community and the Gentile nations into which they were scattered with their unbelieving fellow Jews. In what should stagger no one, the Lord lets the Jews that believe in Him know, He sees and is watching them! As a result, His encouragement turns to rewards for faithfulness: future vindication and reversal in the form of former persecutors being forced in the manor of Haman of old to worship His faithful saints (Esther 3, 5:9-6:14; Revelation 3:9).
But His rewards do not end there. The Lord says “Because you have kept (past tense) My command to persevere, I also will keep (future tense) you from the hour of trial (testing) which shall come upon the whole world, to test those (all others) who dwell on the earth,” (Revelation 3:10, NKJV).6 I concur with all that interpret the “hour of trial” the Lord speaks of here as one and the same as “the great tribulation,” (Matthew 24:15-21, NKJV). This being so, His promise of protection cannot be “the rapture” as is taught since Christians are foretold to go through and many suffer martyrdom during it (Revelation 7:9-14).7 In context and consistency with who He is addressing, the Lord’s promise of protection is intended for Jewish Christians primarily living back in Judea at that time!8
Though the Lord’s promise of protection during the hour of trial speaks to the proven Jewish faithful believers in Israel at the time it occurs, this does not preclude Him in sovereignty extending it to select other faithful followers likewise proven throughout the earth. Together they will form the small number who are “alive and remain” at Christ’s Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, NKJV). For this reason, the Lord warns He is “coming quickly” and exhorts the faithful to tightly grasp what they have in strength, obedience to His Word and loyalty to Him, so, “no one may take your crown;” unmistakably asserting that even with protection, there will still be persecution pressures (Revelation 3:11, 16:15, NKJV).9 The Lord’s rewards are still not done for those that overcome.
With yet more Jewish significant implications is the Lord’s promise to make him that overcomes “a pillar in the temple” of His God adding, “and he shall go out no more.” Also, He declares, “I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem...And I will write on him My new name,” (Psalm 48:1-3, 137:4-6; Isaiah 66:5-11; Revelation 3:12, 21:1-22, NKJV). Contrary to the lying deceit of these latter days, keeping His Word as it is written remains a critical part of the faithfulness Christ rewards! Those who are not doing so, put themselves in grave peril since disobedience is nowhere rewarded in the Bible (Revelation 3:13). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
5 Jewish persecution had led to those that were Christians being barred from entering or cast out of the Temple in the 1st century and it will be so again briefly when it is
rebuilt (Acts 21:15-30; Revelation 11:1-2).
6 The Lord led me to proclaim a timely six message series, The Hour Of Testing, now available in the Strong Man Store that instructs Christians on God’s biblically
taught purposes behind why He tests His people and fully explores the prophetic implications tied to the coming hour of trial our Lord speaks of in this post. Listen
to the series sample.
7 Faithful to the death as those at Smyrna, having overcome they will not be touched again by death; raised as they will be to eternal life and glory by Christ at the first
resurrection (John 5:28-29; Revelation 2:11, 14:12-13, 20:4-6, 11-15)!
8 What an amazing affirming prophetic disclosure by the Lord to Jewish Christians and all the church at Philadelphia, His faithful! Dispersed to the nations, as the Old
Testament prophets and He foretold, the Jews would one day return to their land and among them would be those that are followers of Him as Messiah (Matthew 24:
15-16; Mark 13:16). This prophecy of a return to the land became reality in 1948 when Israel once again became a nation with Jews from all over the world streaming
home since. Here again is the immutability of God on display to the world before our eyes (Malachi 3:6)! During this period of the return, growth in the number of
Jewish followers of Christ--many calling themselves Messianic--in Israel (still with hostility and persecution) and around the world has exploded though, their numbers
are still relatively small compared to the larger number of all Jews and their professed Gentile Christian brethren (Psalm 118:23-24)! Thank you, my brethren, for
your millennia long perseverance under trial in obedience to your Messiah--longer than any other ethnic group and an example to all in His Body! We who love you
rejoice in His righteousness of rewarding you in every way He will! Stay faithful through all that is yet to shortly come. To learn more about them, type “Messianic
Jews” into your favorite search engine.
9 Those who doubt the Lord can protect and preserve His people during times of persecution as well as His own acts of judgment should again acquaint themselves
with His Word as it is written (Exodus 8:20-24, 10:21-23, 12:21-23; Psalm 5:11-12; Joel 3:16; Matthew 2:7-15; Acts 12:1-11 as samples)!
I have heard from some white Christians over the years that they are tired of hearing about racism. I have also heard of others lately that do not care any longer to deal with it as a social justice issue. And while I can understand how the foregoing might be so from a sinful human perspective, has anyone considered that the Lord Jesus Christ could possibly be at the end of His forbearance to bring more severe judgment upon the guilty who tolerate and practice racism in His Church? After all, besides being sin from arrogant pride and spawning many deeds of transgression and iniquity, racism in the Church defies and disobeys a very direct and specific commandment of Christ as Lord!1
To be clear, the arrogance of racial bigotry and discrimination are nowhere supported in the Bible because they are sin; going as they do against the character of God and Law He gave to Israel as His chosen people charged to act like Him (Deuteronomy 10:12-22)! And though the Lord forbade Israel to intermarry with the surrounding pagan Gentile nations, as He leads me to explain in my book, The Scourge Of Racism, it was not about racism, but spiritual fidelity since all these nations engaged in idolatry among other ungodly practices (Exodus 34:10-17).2 In the New Testament, what had morphed into bigotry and discrimination in Jewish practice was rebuked (Acts 6:1-7, 10:1-11:18)!
Also, irrefutable as biblical evidence Christ and Heaven view racism as sin is His ‘“new commandment’” that the disciples making up His Church ‘“love one another’” as He ‘“loved’” us, (John 13:34, NKJV).3 What? Do you think the Lord is not serious about His commandment stated with the same force of authority as the Ten Commandments which also came from Him (Exodus 24:9-18)? The bigotry and discrimination of racism willfully transgress, sin against and pervert the Lord’s new commandment to His disciples that tolerate and practice it; His disciples who by His stated will are supposed to be identified as such by our ‘“love for one another,’” (John 13:35, NKJV).4
This means every professed Christian white, black and every other hue that practice racism is sinning against the Lord!5 Now, the racism of guilty professed white Christians is typically what is addressed when the subject comes up. This is one of the many not so small consequences for the guilty whites from the nation’s inception and over the centuries that have led out in tolerating and practicing the sin of racism. However, we black and Christians of other hues that are guilty get no pass from judgment as the usual objects of racism’s scourge without repentance since the Lord shows no partiality and judges each man as his deeds deserve (Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11).6
Centuries of tolerating and practicing racism by disobedient real Christians and those as religious impostors have misrepresented Him as well as brought disgrace and shame on Christ and His Church. Only Satan could benefit from the failure of professed Christians to obey the Lord’s command to love each other and has; untold numbers of especially minority men want nothing to do with Christianity because its primary identifying mark, love, has been largely missing. So, is the Lord okay with this as even many evangelicals appear to believe judging by their slowness to address racism internally and how far down the moral issues list it is? After encountering the Lord in a recent time of fasting and prayer, I can assure of His grief; the end of His forbearance and longsuffering!7
1 Read the September 17, 2023 post, Racism A Two-Fold Scourge, under the category, Biblical Worldview. The historic culpability of the guilty majority white members making up the American Church in upholding the tolerance and practice of racism within and without its assemblies is inescapable to all but the most spiritually hardened of hearts in denial.
2 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 45. Learn more about the soon to be released book at this link.
3 Every aspiring strong Man and great woman of God in Christ’s image takes to heart His commandment understanding the role assignment He has given us as a servant of humanity. I write about this eternal role in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. Get your Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Edition in the Strong Man Store now, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
4 See the two-part post that begins March 8, 2015, Known By Our Love, under the category, Instruction. As this 2015 post affirms, the love the Lord speaks of is God’s. This reality makes His cause for “all” to be able to identify those who are truly His disciples by our love for one another the more frustrating when they also tolerate and practice racism! Of course, the post also stresses a significant reason racism can exist to the extent it does in His Church. It is because of the many false Christians as impostors practicing a manmade, counterfeit version of the real deal that is also tolerated.
5 Read the December 11, 2016 post, Professing Christian Racism Is Sin Too, under the category, Call To Repent.
6 The racism practiced by blacks and other hues is just as wicked as that of whites in the sight of the Lord! For this cause, no one can justify being a racist by saying some- one else is one too.
7 I was fasting and seeking the Lord on another matter this past September 13th. In the brokenness of my soul in His presence, He blended His grief over the state of His Church in America with my personal concern. I cannot stress enough how urgent it is for every professed Christian to watch our Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord. It is not about garnering views for the sake of boasting. It is about giving the willing the chance to hear the Lord’s heart for His professed people at this critical time in the history of our nation and world!
So then, faithful born again Christians are not supposed to be struggling with why we would suffer persecution even to the death for being followers of Jesus Christ! Christ being our example in everything led me beginning November 27, 2022 to write consecutive posts through January 8, 2023 holding up His willingness in attitude from eternity to suffer persecution to the death and His experience of it for God’s cause of salvation. Completely identifying with Christ, our cause in profound gratitude to be saved and love for Him is to be willing to suffer persecution to the death if called upon as a witness to the world of the Gospel’s power to save and for the glory of God (Revelation 12:11)!1
Many of the professed Christians struggling with the biblically taught, prophetically foretold, historically demonstrated and currently ongoing reality of persecution for the faith to the death are sadly, impostors. Others are superficial and weak in the faith for various reasons including not being properly taught in the churches they attend. They are ready to fall away at the least bit of persecution related suffering “because of the word.” Still others are distracted and preoccupied with “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.” Not a few such as religionists who have their own “form” of Christianity are in fearful denial (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23; 2 Timothy 3:1-12, NKJV).
Nevertheless, when the Lord granted and announced to His persecutors bent on killing Him ‘“this is your hour, and the power of darkness,’” this period of hatred driven persecution He foretold that began with Him commenced and has continued for His followers nearly two millennia (Luke 21:17, 22:53; John 15:18-19, NKJV). It will not end until His Second Coming (2 Thessalonians 1:3-10)! While the extent and severity of persecution has ebbed and flowed over the centuries, some observers suggest the uptick of martyrdoms in the 20th century was more than all of the previous centuries together!2 A number believe all forms of persecution this 21st century are the worst ever.3
However bad it is now, Bible prophecy assures us that even more hate-filled, intensely oppressive, violent, murderous and widespread persecution is coming upon the saints from among all nations (Matthew 24:9) and finally the Antichrist (Daniel 7:15-25; 8:23-25, 11:31; Matthew 24:15-22).4 Indeed, wherever Christians have been persecuted “for” His “name’s sake,” most frequently over the centuries up to now, it has involved various governing and religious authorities to include professed Christians just as the Lord warned (Luke 21:12, NKJV).5 Such times, He instructs, are an opportunity to testify with the Holy Spirit’s help requiring no need to worry about what to say (Luke 21:13-15).
Perhaps the most mentally and emotionally disturbing thing to consider is the Lord’s warning too, of being persecuted and betrayed to the death by family and friends (Luke 21:16). As I wrote in a previous post in this series, the Lord was persecuted by His brothers and betrayed to His death by a friend.6 I understand betrayal by friends to the death since most of us will have very few in a lifetime that are of the depth and caliber of Jonathan to David (1 Samuel 19-20). I have had my share of even professed Christian friends betray me for whatever motives. And while troubling to contemplate, having had family strife over Christ as He warns, I know betrayal is possible too (Matthew 10:34-39)!7
The faithful are to understand and take comfort in the fact evil mankind and the devil have been permitted their hour to persecute first our Lord Jesus and us afterward by God! So, we are to endure it as testing knowing that there is good that comes out of it for us including divine blessing and reward (Matthew 5:10-12; Luke 6:22-23; Romans 5:1-5, 8:18-39; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; James 1:1-8; 1 Peter 1:1-12, 2:18-25, 3:13-17, 4:12-19; Revelation 2:25-29, 14:9-13). They are all taking their best shot, but in the end, we remain standing even in spite of death because Christ who died and rose again immortal, enables us to do the same (1 Corinthians 6:14, 15:50-57; 2 Timothy 1:8-12)! Thus, if it must be, let us go out like and for Him as many of our brethren have done, are doing and will do.8
1 This is precisely the heart of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore and the Strong Man Store.
2 Read the 2010 Christianity.com article by Dan Wooding, Modern Christianity.
3 See the 2023 World Watch List produced by Open Doors International and cited in a Christianity Today article. Also, read the November 29, 2020 post the Lord led me to write discussing the rising persecution of Christians in our own nation entitled, Persecution Of American Christians Intensifying, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 Let it sink down into our hearts: this hour granted to evil men and demons to persecute the saints is moving toward its foretold climax (Revelation 13)!
5 Professed Christians among Catholics and Protestants in history have violently persecuted the Lord’s saints and prophets and martyred many as heretics wickedly going far beyond the authority of Scripture (Revelation 17:1-6).
6 Read the January 8, 2023 post, Christ Persecuted To The Death, under the category, Instruction.
7 See the two-part post beginning May 24, 2020, Persecution, Hatred And Betrayal, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
8 Christ with humble submission to God and resolute determination after prayer went to the cross and expects His faithful to follow His example in the face of our own cross (Mark 8:31-38, 14:32-50).
As the Lord leads, I write briefly to elaborate further on His instructive illustration using the concept of a strong man to rebuke Israel’s religious leaders in their blasphemous accusation He cast out demons by Satan recorded in Matthew 12:22-30. This is the text I use in my Releasing The Strong Man message during our second Online Rally rolled out November 27th, Hallelujah, Free!1 The same incident is also presented in Mark 3:22-27 and Luke 11:14-23. The Lord arrives at His strong man illustration after making it perfectly clear the man He had just healed through casting out a demon that made him blind and mute was “by the Spirit of God” (Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 12:28, NKJV).
Very historically significant and spiritually pregnant, Luke wrote the Lord said He performed the healing “with the finger of God,” (Exodus 8:16-19; Luke 11:20, NKJV). Both expressions convey the infinitely superior power of the Kingdom of God over Satan’s kingdom on display for all to see! For as the Holy Spirit is the actualizing Agent of God’s Word that caused the universe to leap into existence out of nothing and lice from dust men practicing the occult recognized (Genesis 1:1-3; Exodus 8:19), so, Israel’s religious leaders supposedly in the know about God should have immediately been rejoicing with everyone else that He had mightily shown up in the miracle!
Religion deadened the hearts of these men as it does many today. Not being willing to acknowledge the spiritually obvious, the Lord uses the logic of the natural world in His rebuke of Israel’s religious leaders to hopefully help them see the truth. In the natural world no one can typically enter into a strong man’s house and take his goods. Strong here expresses the idea of being well equipped whether physically in body, with weapons or both to repel anyone that would tread upon the premises a man guards to take from him. The only way such a thing could happen is if the one who enters the strong man’s house is actually stronger than he is!2
Thus, if the Lord Jesus cast a demon out of the man, then, He is plainly stronger! Satan would not foolishly do this since the demon belongs to his kingdom and has bound up and occupied the man serving his kingdom purposes. Christ freed the man on this and every other occasion He cast out demons because His Kingdom is stronger! As the Lord led me to point out in the Online Rally message, Satan has bound every sinful man in some form because he though fallen, is an angel and naturally stronger than we mortals.3 But Christ being stronger than Satan is not only able to release us from his binding ties, but enable us to become the eternally strong men of God in His image God intended from the beginning who in His strength, can repel Satan’s efforts to bind us going forward!4
1 View the rally and subscribe to the channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o13NjNpNexg.
2 Please note the Lord is not advocating for men to be ready to pulverize or keep weapons to fend off home intruders, but only relating the natural posture of men who under- stand their role as protectors of their families and homes. That said, the Lord’s use of the strong man in His illustration affirms this divine assigned role of men from crea- tion as protectors of their families and homes. Men in this role imitate God who protects Heaven--no one will ever roll up into Heaven to successfully bind God, unseat Him and plunder His House (Genesis 1:26; Isaiah 14:12-15; Revelation 12:7-9, 12, 19:11-16, 20:1-3, 7-10)!
3 Satan binds men as sinners through the ties of sin, fallen thinking, emotions, attitudes and deeds as well as the fear of death and evil desires (Proverbs 20:9; Romans 3: 9-20, 23; Galatians 5:19-21; Hebrews 2:14-15; James 1:12-15).
4 Read and take to heart Ephesians 6:10-18! Learn about becoming a strong man of God in Christ’s image in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics along with companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
Join The Strong Man Of God Resources Conversation!
Get Your Copy Of The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics Today!
Your purchase supports restoring men, families and communities through Strong Man Ministries!
Purchase It Now