The Scourge Of Racism
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Released January 5, 2024
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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!
“God is righteously at work in His house through judgment.” This is what He led me to write and explain in a post earlier this year as well as warn again of in the opening paragraph of last week’s.1 And why? The tolerance and practice of the sin of racism led out over four centuries by the guilty majority of professed white Christians in the Church that also enabled it in the larger society is one of several very serious reasons the Lord has brought judgment. While due to taking racism lightly some in evangelicalism are incredulous and dismissive concerning any judgment from the Lord because of it, He for that reason and other Church sins is about to take His judgment to another level!
I warn about the Lord’s judgment in my updated book, The Scourge Of Racism.2 That His judgment should amaze a professed Christian demonstrates such a one does not know the Lord from His Word or in relationship! From Genesis to Revelation God is shown to judge sin, disobedience or insubordination if you will (Genesis 2:15-17, 3:17-19; Revelation 2:12-17). There is not a sinful fallen human organization on earth that will long tolerate insubordination before punishing it! Even lions and wolves punish their insubordinate. So, how is it anyone supposedly acquainted with Christ would presume He would not judge any sin as insubordination and much more racism in His Church?
The guilty have made this false presumption about Christ concerning racism in the Church from colonial times as they also make it today in the face of His very direct and specific commandment through the apostle Paul regarding the role of women (John 13:34-35; 1 Corinthians 14:34-37): because they want to! They mistaken the Lord’s slowness to judge for permission to sin instead of what it really is, “forbearance, and longsuffering” to give time for them to repent (Luke 13:6-9; Romans 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9, NKJV). Otherwise, the guilty have not gone nor will they go unpunished by the Lord without repentance. Moreover, the whole Church suffers when the Lord judges as He does now.
The American Civil War not only divided the nation, but churches and denominations too! The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) owes its name to a split among white Baptists in favor of retaining slavery shortly before the brief, but bloody and destructive war over it as judgment from the Lord after years of resisting His will to abolish it.3 Centuries of Church toleration, practice and enablement of now, systemic racism helped pave the way for the rebellion that erupted a generation ago and set in motion radical feminism, sexual deviance and gender confusion. These all subvert the family and its order as God designed and is leading to the nation’s swiftly paced ruin. Sin has consequences!
Another clear consequence of widespread insubordination in the Church is seen too, at this moment: dwindling memberships, the death of local churches and loss of cultural influence. If the people who profess to know Christ do not obey His Word, how can it be expected that unbelievers will? And as it concerns racism, I point out in The Scourge Of Racism, the world is shamefully doing better than the Church in its flawed attempt to deal with it!4 White conservative evangelical and Southern Baptist Seminary President, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., points out the Church’s very existence is threatened when the authority of Scripture and by implication obedience to it are surrendered.5
Of course, consistent with the typical priority focus on other important select moral issues by conservative white evangelicals and the SBC currently the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, racism is not dealt with by Dr. Mohler in his book I refer to in the preceding paragraph. Though racism may not be a priority moral issue for conservative white evangelicals and the SBC, my book among a growing number of others addressing this willful lapse trumpets it is for the Lord!6 As I write about in my book, conservative white evangelical in-house silence on racism is fed by a continued toleration and widespread practice of it among guilty leaders and members;7 silence that also held sway while sexual predators preyed on church members and allowed women to become pastors.8
Contrary to popular professed Christian opinion, Jesus Christ is not a marshmallow! Along with His continuing work to save throughout our nation, “the LORD strong and mighty” at the end of His forbearance and longsuffering is about to intensify His judgment upon His American Church (Psalm 24:7-10, NKJV).9 More churches that should be discipling new converts are going to die because the Lord can no longer trust them to do so with fidelity to His Word (Matthew 23:15).10 More frequent and devastating calamities upon the nation many of His professed people love more than Him are coming. Finally, more intense resistance to evangelicalism’s demand for secular society to submit to biblical morality while many of them do not is on the way with greater persecution!
1 See the April 30, 2023 post, God’s Warning To Non-Christians, Pt. 1 and Healing Racism’s Wounds In The Church, both under the category, Call To Repent.
2 The book is now widely available in this Ministry’s Web Site Stores including the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores. View the short book trailer.
3 Read the February 12, 2023 post, Leaders Can Get Their Nations In Trouble, under the category, Call To Repent.
4 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 15-18, 47-48.
5 See The Gathering Storm, Secularism, Culture And The Church by R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Copyright 2020, Nelson Books, Nashville, p. 34. On the same page Dr. Mohler writes, “Where you find a church, you find a community committed to the Bible. If not, you have not found a church.” Sobering truth every pastor jumping on the band- wagon of insubordination to Christ and His biblical commandments as written should fearfully consider!
6 Read the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No, under the category, Instruction.
7 I spent over thirty years of my Christian life with the SBC and talk about its issues with racism in my updated book. In-house silence precludes hypocritically taking a stand against racism in the larger society which is why it must be repented from now, with all other sins in returning to Him! Truly, racism is equally egregious in its of- fense to God as all other transgression, sin and iniquity. Watch our Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord for Christians.
8 The widely reported and dealt with at the convention level cover up of sexual impropriety in many of their churches by SBC leaders has publically at least, rebuked the si- lence concerning this iniquity. It has also righteously led to an emboldened stand against churches flagrantly defying Scripture and being insubordinate through enabling women to become pastors, lead and take authority over men (1 Timothy 2:11-3:13; Titus 1:1-16; Hebrews 13:8; Revelation 2:18-23).
9 Jesus Christ is the Strong Man of God and role model for every Christian man I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. The Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions are available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
10 New converts are easily taught and mentored in person by spiritually maturing individuals as has always been done or in this technologically sophisticated age, online (Acts 18:24-28). As He showed during the pandemic, local churches--especially ones sinning against Him--are not so essential Christ cannot do without them (Revelation 2:1-7, 3:14-22)!
As the Lord leads me to make plain in the book, The Scourge Of Racism, racism leaves no one involved untouched; not the object or the perpetrator!1 In the book chapter similarly titled as today’s post, He leads me to firmly assert the very real resulting wounds of racism in the American Church require healing through God’s methodologies already prescribed in His written Word! Of course, one must first be biblically conservative to honor and preserve God’s instruction in His Word intact and willing to objectively interpret, apply and submit to it in obedience. Because all or some part of the foregoing is missing in the main, the Church is now, under God’s judgment!2
Through its human vessels beginning with guilty professed Christian white colonists from before the nation’s founding, their local assemblies and subsequent institutions, the Church in this land that came to be America has tolerated, practiced and enabled racism within its ranks.3 Some of the guilty professed Christian objects of racism in bitterness have returned the favor. Obviously, none of these persons were practicing biblical conservatism in preserving or obeying Christ’s commandment to “love one another” over the past four centuries nor are the guilty doing so now (John 13:34-35, NKJV).4 This ungodly reality is contrary to the example of many biblical personages.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the foremost example of a biblical conservative. He announced to Israel He had not come “to destroy the Law or the Prophets…but to fulfill” them (Matthew 5:17-20; Luke 16:14-18, 24:25-27, 44-45, NKJV). Every godly person in the Bible after Christ also treats the Word of God with reverence and acts on it as it is written (Joshua 8:30-35; Daniel 9:1-2; Luke 2:25, 23:50-51).5 Even Satan and his demon cohort take God’s Word at face value while corrupting it to whoever will pay heed (Matthew 4:1-7, 8:28-29; 2 Peter 3:14-16). No, Christ’s commandment that His disciples love each other has willfully not been honored, preserved or obeyed!
There is absolutely no excuse for disobeying Christ’s commandment for the real “born again” Christian because the impetus and spiritual substance of God’s love through the Holy Spirit fills our hearts providing what we need to obey (John 3:1-8; Romans 5:5; 1 Corinthians 13:1-8a, NKJV). Beyond yielding to the sinful flesh along with worldly family and cultural conditioning, this raises the prospect of fear and the outcome of cowardice which the Lord does not accept as a reason for disobedience (Romans 13:8-14; Galatians 5:19-25; Revelation 21:8). After these reasons only one other is plausible and that is the disobedient are not Christians at all, but impostors and apostates.6
In my book, I do not pretend healing racism’s wounds in the American Church will be easy. The biblical process will be spiritually, psychologically and emotionally challenging for authentic Christians that have been practicing even subtle racism a long time. For the personal sin of racism and that of one’s fathers must be confessed and repented from before God to receive His forgiveness (Daniel 9:8-11; 1 John 1:8-2:2).7 Also, the forgiveness of those known brothers and sisters one has been bigoted toward and discriminated against is to be sought. Guilty black and Christians of every other hue must confess and repent from bitterness and be willing to forgive those past and present who have brought harm through racism (Mark11:25-26; Ephesians 4:31-32; Colossians 3:12-13).
1 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR. Learn more about the book to be released October 5th and the specific chapter referred to, The Sting Of Racism, at this link. The book will be widely available in Ministry Web Site Stores, among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
2 Read the June 10, 2018 post, God’s Judgment Upon His House, under the categories Bible Prophecy and God’s Creatures.
3 See the respective September 10 and 17, 2023 posts, Our American Heritage and Racism A Two-Fold Scourge, both under the category, Biblical Worldview.
4 Read the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No, under the category, Instruction.
5 This is the heart of every aspiring strong man and great woman of God I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It remains available in the Strong Man Store among internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
6 See the two-part post beginning August 21, 2016, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction. Practicing and attempting to pass off a counterfeit form of manmade of Christianity, religious folk as impostors that grow worse and apostates who knowingly infiltrate local assemblies are foretold (2 Timothy 3:1-9, 13; Jude 3-4, 16-19). These are easily persuaded by Satan, sin and self to hate as racists because the love of God is not in them!
7 Racism is most assuredly among the sins of the fathers and one’s own the Lord is expecting those professed Christians who will return to Him to confess and repent from in His appeal through this Ministry’s Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord.
While the Lord Jesus most assuredly initially speaks to the seven messengers and the corporate assemblies of Asia they lead, He concludes every message speaking to the individuals that make them up. The proof of this beyond His repeated use of the phrase “He who has an ear...” in Revelation 2-3 I have already referenced is another like it: “To him” or “He who overcomes.” The Lord unmistakably addresses Himself to any individual within the particular church He is speaking to that will give heed to His words. This is not unusual since His Church is made up of individuals that have believed on Him as “the Christ, the Son of the living God,” (Matthew 16:13-18, NKJV)!
Nevertheless, an elementary truth Christ knows, but many religionists especially fail to grasp is that not everyone assembled together in a local church is truly a born again believer in Him (John 3:1-8). There are “false brethren,” “impostors” and de facto apostates in many ostensibly “Christian” churches that even hold titles of authority (Galatians 2:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:13; Titus 1:10-16, NKJV). This is due to a number of reasons to include the lowered, unbiblical standards of membership many have tied to the practice of Christianity as a religious invention of men and the purposeful infiltration of Satan’s emissaries (2 Corinthians 11:10-15; Jude 3-4). Thus, a local church anywhere on the planet is not necessarily the Church in miniature!5
As a consequence, membership in a local church is not tantamount to membership in the Church of Jesus Christ either. So-called “opening the doors of the church” to invite non-members “to join” without ascertaining their actual spiritual status or presenting the biblical Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) with the requirement to repent and believe it is traditional in many religion bound Protestant churches desperate to fill empty pews.6 However, it is not membership with benefits as in a worldly social club affiliation that the writer of Hebrews advocates in his exhortation, “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,” (Hebrews 10:24-25, NKJV).7
His advocacy is for the regular gathering together of the Lord’s faithful as individuals to Him in any number and kind of settings to include jails and homes (Acts 1:12-14, 2:40-47, 12:1-12, 16:23-25; Romans 16:5). The well intended and wicked religionists that have made membership, regular attendance and participation in local, corporate brick and mortar churches alone the standard and core of the Christian experience rather than relationship with Christ and the New Testament understanding of assembling together as His Church have set the unknowing, biblically illiterate and weak among them up for spiritual disaster in these latter days. Truly, what will these folk do when they can’t “go to church” anymore as is the case for our persecuted brethren in many places?
The Lord Jesus also speaks to the individuals that make up the seven churches of Asia because His standards of Church membership and discipleship are high. This is the second part of His prophetic warning. Contrary to popular manmade Christianity, people are not just going to get into Heaven and receive immortal glory “any old how.” Repeatedly the Lord declares it is “him” or “he that overcomes.” The two churches of Asia He commends in full are composed of saints that have endured persecution driven “tribulation,” “poverty,” “prison” and testing; persevering as our Lord “Faithful and True” to the death in faithfulness (Revelation 2:8-11, 3:7-14, NKJV). These faithful saints keep His “works until the end,” (Revelation 2:26, NKJV).8
That the end for persevering faithful saints on earth includes going through “the great tribulation” is bound up in the unfolding prophetic content the apostle John is to write concerning “the things which will take place after this;” that is, prophetic reality contemporary with the seven churches of Asia, but also beyond them (Revelation 1:19, NKJV). Revelation 5:1-10 shows Christ as the “Root of David” and “the Lamb” along with “the saints” and His Church to that moment already in Heaven (NKJV). In the overview prophetic sweep of earth activity up to Christ’s Second Coming embodied in the seals of Revelation 6, the fifth seal (vs. 9-11) makes clear martyrdom in suffering among His saints on earth will be God’s permitted norm--something they are prepared for (Romans 8:31-39).
Revelation 7:9-17 indisputably shows individual saints from “all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues” “come out of the great tribulation” which along with what God does in the heavens and upon the earth, involves all manner of suffering and martyrdom in the all out war finally prosecuted against us by the Antichrist (think Hitler’s “final solution”) as other parts of Bible prophecy and Revelation corroborates (Daniel 7:15-25, 8:15-25; Matthew 24:9-22; Revelation 12:7-13:18, 14:6-13, NKJV). God will also permit the Antichrist to destroy brick and mortar church buildings as is already occurring in many places amidst all of his destructive acts; eliciting a cry from Heaven for God’s people to exit she that is “The Mother Of Harlots” and owns treasured property (Revelation 17:1-18:8, NKJV).
Nevertheless, at the end of the three and a half years of the great tribulation and before the full outpour of God’s wrath, as He promised, the Lord will suddenly appear in clouds of glory. With His thunderous shout, the commanding voice of an archangel and blast of God’s trumpet, the Lord will gather all of His saints to Himself in the sky. The dead in Christ will be raised first and take flight to Him, while the remnant of faithful saints still alive will bypass death, be translated and follow after them (Matthew 24:29-31; Mark 13:24-27; 1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; Revelation 14:14-16, 16:15, 19:6-16)! The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
5 It is the universal Church made up of His faithful followers that Christ builds “and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18, NKJV) not every
single local church calling itself Christian (2 Timothy 2:19-21).
6 When unbelievers “join” they are by default impostors, false brethren, devils and tools of Satan as are willful or de facto apostates whether they realize it or not. Is
it any wonder the inevitable historic real life carnal church drama created is making for great film and television drama in these latter days while simultaneously
bringing shame to Christ?
7 Temporal membership in a local brick and mortar church certainly does have its benefits, but they do not exceed the greater benefits of membership in the univer-
sal Church of Jesus Christ! As a result, the value of membership in a local church apart from authentic relationship with Christ and membership in His Church is
exalted well beyond its value and over sold. Moreover, churches that use joining as a test of loyalty to them especially when they are unfaithfully sinning against
Christ are hypocritical and wicked (Matthew 23:15)! Even so, a local brick and mortar church that faithfully preaches the biblical Gospel for salvation, teaches and
diligently strives to model obedience to God’s Word as it is written, equips the saints for and facilitates them in biblical ministry and mission as a priority is well
pleasing to the Lord and useful in His Kingdom causes during the time that is left to operate openly. See the July 23, 2017 post, Churchmen In The Two Minute
Drill, under the category, The Cause. Also read the timely essay, What Hath The Church Fathers To Do With Your Local Church by Stephen Presley, in the Fall
2019 edition of Southwestern News, P. 54-57, to see that even in scholarly circles there is an appreciation of the consequential increase in hostility of Western cul-
tures including our own toward Christianity and discussion of the right response among the churches.
8 Such is every aspiring strong man and great woman of God I write and instruct about from God’s Word in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. If
you want to learn the foundational biblical expectations of Christ for His followers and be equipped to faithfully live them out to the end, get a print copy or digital
download of my book at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only). You can also get a print copy
of the book in the Strong Man Store. If you would like a foretaste of what is taught in the book, read my two-part 2019 post that begins August 18, Lined Up Be-
hind Jesus, under the category, Instruction.
Arising from the midst of the Lord’s permitted severe adversities as judgment upon along with grace, mercy and revival in His American Church are men; men who aspire to be “strong” as described of old by Daniel the prophet and in Christ’s image (Daniel 11:32-35; Romans 8:29, NKJV).1 Such men are supposed to be well represented in the Church. However, in these latter days they have been made rare by a multitude of Church sins including the toleration and practice of racism. Restored in their sold out devotion and obedience to Christ, aspiring strong men of God in His image are the only ones that can stand to lead the Church out of racism and into modeling racial harmony!
All men are weak in sin before God (Psalm 6:1-2a, 51:5; Luke 5:4-8; Romans 3:9-18, 23)! Our thinking, attitudes, words and deeds fully display the sin nature that resides within us (Mark 7:21-22). Indeed, racism is but one of many sins men practice that flow from our sin nature and the arrogance with pride spawned by it in the heart.2 With all other sins men commit, racism too, is not only a display of the sin nature, but spiritual weakness. Consequently, as the Lord leads me to write in The Scourge Of Racism, those who practice racism whether they profess to be Christians or not and whatever their hues are also showing spiritual weakness only He can deliver a man from.3
Jesus Christ, God “the Word” and “Son,” came into the world from Heaven by the express will of “the Father,” (John 1:1-2, 14-18, NKJV). He taught with “authority” and did mighty works in the power of God (Mark 1:21-28, 4:35-41; John 20:30-31, NKJV). He was also tested in every manner as we are to the death, but no sin was found in Him for He was perfect in all of His ways (Matthew 4:1-11, 26:36-46, 27:35-54; Hebrews 2:18, 4:15). Without dispute, Jesus Christ is the Strong Man of God He wants all willing men to look to as the role model for what being a man is about, follow and imitate to the end of bearing His image forever (Luke 9:18-36; 1 Corinthians 11:1, 15:47-49)!4
While the Father does allow for the reality of sin weak Christ followers, this is not His perfect will (1 Corinthians 11:23-32). Every man that repents of his sins and believes on Christ for salvation is called by the Father to become a strong man in His Son’s image and purposely set on a path to spiritual maturity to that end by Him (Matthew 10:24-25; Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 12:1-11). In seeking to please Him and do His will, Christian men as aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image submit to and obey His commandments as taught (Matthew 28:18-20). Chief among the Lord’s commandments is for His disciples to “love one another” as He exemplified (John 13:34, NKJV).5
Not only would the world know the reality of Christ by His disciples’ display of love for each other, but they by their obedience to His command would be showing Him love the way He requires (John 13:35, 14:15). As a result, they most assuredly would not be tolerant of or practicing the loveless sin of racism! For besides disobeying the Lord’s command to love each other practicing racism, they know this sin wickedly does harm to its object whether a fellow believer or not (Romans 13:8-10). Too, they understand themselves to be sons of God who behaving in righteousness and love, are distinct from the devil’s children and their hurtful conduct toward others (1 John 3:10-15).
The men I am describing--aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ--are not more evident in the Church at this hour because many have been left ignorant of their calling attending churches where it or anything like biblical manhood is not taught. Also, men are marginalized in the Church due to another sin, capitulation to feminists for the sake of their definition of equality. Nevertheless, Christ Lord of His Church is restoring willing men through Ministries like ours!6 They are being purposely taught the way of Christ as the Strong Man of God so in being personally restored, they might also restore their families and communities to include local churches as needed.7
As I write in The Scourge Of Racism, whatever their hue aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image do not tolerate, practice or in silence endorse the sin of racism, but call it out while modeling the Lord’s commanded love.8 As it should be, these aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ are local church leaders as well as those rising up from the pews to display the solution to racism in His Church and to a skeptical, hostile watching world to His glory as we are called to do! Truly, standing against racism and all biblically defined sin in the midst of intensifying adversities and persecution from Christian impostors and the world will be challenging; they will have the experiences of the men in Daniel’s prophecy already cited as they serve in Christ’s strength (Philippians 4:13).
1 Read the October 15, 2023 post, In Judgment, Grace, Mercy And Revival, under the category, Glory To God!
2 See the September 17, 2023 post, Racism A Two-Fold Scourge, under the category, Biblical Worldview, for a definition of racism.
3 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 64. The book can be purchased in this Ministry’s Web Site Stores including the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
4 Learn more about Jesus Christ as the Strong Man of God in my previously published book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics! The Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions are available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
5 The Lord knows His commandment is impossible without the indwelling power and help of the Holy Spirit and spoke in anticipation of His coming to equip us to obey (John 3:1-8, 14:16-17, 26; Romans 5:5; 1 Peter 1:22-25).
6 Since 2005 Strong Man Ministries has been carrying out the Lord’s mission to restore men, their families and communities despite actual opposition not only from the world, but local churches! Learn more about our work on our Web Site and courageously consider supporting it.
7 Restoration through returning to the Lord is an important first step for professed Christian men who know they are far from anything like His image in their walk. Our on- going Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, seeks to facilitate that restoration. Your soul, sir, is worth the thirty minutes it takes to watch the rally on our YouTube channel.
8 The Scourge Of Racism, op. cit., p. 64.
As the Lord leads, I launch the New Year with a word of sober prophetic warning to the churches and individuals making them up that claim connection to Jesus Christ of the Bible (Ezekiel 33:1-9). The warning is rooted in the last book of the Bible declared to be His “Revelation” in which He participates in the delivery and oversees the composition of its prophetic content that pronounces the reader and obedient hearer “blessed” (Revelation 1:1-3, NKJV). The Lord’s participation includes His own recorded words in glorious appearance to His chosen vessel and prophet, the apostle John, who is to write down and deliver the prophecy to seven churches in Asia (Revelation 1:4-20).
Before going any further, let me give the first part of the Lord’s warning to all of the churches that have entered this third decade of the 21st century and at breakneck speed, approach the second millennia anniversary of His death, burial, resurrection and ascension: He has not changed (Hebrews 13:8)! What He said to the churches in Asia at the end of the 1st century A.D., He stands by and says to all that exist at this hour and until the end. Those who by deceitful corruption of the Bible insist otherwise are deluding themselves and deceiving you that believe them! The Lord’s prophecy to the seven churches in Asia was for them, all others of the time and all that would exist after them.
The latter statement is consistent with the commentary of many biblically conservative interpreters that understand the apostle John in obedience to the Lord’s command was to deliver the entire “Revelation” to the literal seven named churches of Asia (Revelation 1:9-11, 19).1 Again, very importantly in the process the Lord’s specific messages to each one of those seven churches was to also speak to their contemporary sister churches and those of similar circumstance in the future. Some believe each church of the seven represented a season of the long epoch of Church history on earth thus far. However, this conclusion is not borne out by actual history.
Absolutely consistent with actual history though, the Bible and Revelation’s use of the number seven to indicate completeness (Genesis 2:1-3; Joshua 6:1-5; Luke 8:1-2), each of the seven churches in their conduct represent the continuing state of churches existing then together and at all times after until they are no more at an end prophetically and repeatedly alluded to by the Lord in His messages to them. As the Lord has had me declare in many previous posts, the approaching global end of local churches as open, corporate displays of Christianity regardless of form or authenticity comes from the world’s persecutions and His judgment.2
The foregoing is the reason I break here with the popular teaching that churches are not mentioned from Revelation 4 onward because Christians have been removed from the earth by “the rapture.” Actually, “the churches” are again mentioned in Revelation 22:16. Individual believers as “His servants” and “saints” on earth and in Heaven are spoken of throughout the prophecy while “the angels (messengers) of the seven churches” are uniquely addressed (Revelation 1:1, 20, 5:8-10, NKJV). Indeed, among the many common characteristics of the Lord’s messages to the churches in Revelation 2-3 are His repeated words, “He who has an ear...” spoken to individuals within them!
I will return to individuals as the ultimate target audience of the Lord even as He initially speaks to them in local churches momentarily. First though, the Lord would have me briefly speak more to the common characteristics of His messages to the seven churches of Asia. In what should certainly be the most alarming common characteristic of the Lord’s messages to the seven churches is the reality that He walked among them. This is how He knew their works as another commonality and knows ours too! An additional common characteristic is the Lord held the messengers of these churches in His right hand which suggests not only honor and responsibility, but also control.3
The Lord commended the good, but voiced what He had against the messengers and the seven churches they led as still another commonality; calling the guilty to repentance to avoid temporal punishment and eternal loss. Yet, this did not seem to have long alarmed guilty leaders and congregants or deter them from brazen disobedience to His Word and committing all manner of evil to this hour!4 In spite of the Lord’s command for all to “hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” their history is replete with the corrupt conduct He condemned. The seven churches of Asia passed from the scene as have countless others since and all are shortly about to. Even so, a remnant of Christians from among the two churches Christ commended has stood and will stand to the end!
1 See for example, Revelation by George Ladd, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, MI, 1972, p 36.
2 Read the August 23, 2015 post, Babylon Is Falling, under the category, Bible Prophecy and Praise For The Lord God Almighty!, posted September 13, 2015 under the
category, Glory To God as samples. So much for “thriving religious enterprises of human pride, achievement and enduring legacy” I wrote is all the rage during these
latter days in the introduction of my December 8, 2019 repost, Restoring Men, under the category, The Cause!
3 Messengers clearly refer to the men called by Christ to shepherd and feed His sheep with His messages (John 21:15-17; Acts 20:26-28; 1 Peter 5:1-4). Therefore, no
pastor/teacher is to understand himself as the sovereign head over a local church and free to teach whatever is right in his own eyes. The Lord Jesus is and remains
forever, Lord, under whom a pastor and any elders serve and are held accountable by Him. The Lord has mercifully chosen for His purposes and our testing to be
longsuffering in the main during this mortal Church era (Luke 13:6-9; 2 Peter 3:9). It is because of this that guilty pastors doing what is right in their own eyes as if
there is no King or Chief Shepherd (Judges 17:6; Acts 20:29-30) have enjoyed extended stays and on their account such resulting ungodly confusion exists among
the churches (2 Peter 2:18-19). But there is a King and Christ is He! Without repentance, His eventual judgment is assured (Matthew 18:6-9) as He made clear to the
guilty messengers and churches of Asia. See my February 9, 2014 post, Is There No King Among Us?, under the category, Call To Repent.
4 As a contemporary example, since the 1960s many male pastors have followed the lead of Thyatira’s messenger to “allow” the rise of guilty women as Jezebels to
teach and take authority over His "servants" in His house in defiance of plain apostolic doctrine (1 Timothy 2:11-14; Revelation 2:20, NKJV). Read my May 27 and
June 3, 2018 two-part post, Feminism’s Entry Into The Churches, under the categories Call To Repent and God’s Creatures. At this hour too, United Methodists are
splitting over the issue of whether same sex relationships biblically condemned are to be tolerated among its members and leaders.
How different the messaging of the risen Christ to the churches at the end of the first century and now, nearly twenty centuries later. Seven messages to seven churches of Asia and only two were fully commended back then. Yet, in contrast, if you listen to many Christian media personalities to include mega and other church pastors today, Christ has hardly anything negative to say about what is going on in churches supposedly devoted to His Lordship. The ratio of five messengers and churches called to repentance to two fully commended has amazingly flip flopped in these latter days despite all of the same issues Christ raised being evident and far worse in countless churches!
As the Lord has had me write many times, it is as if He were in fact dead and not risen for all of the effect His written Word and living presence has among churches that profess to be Christian.1 Or else, how can you truly believe Christ is in your midst and sin in disobedience with impunity to His face as many do? Or are you actually believing the lie He has changed since what John recorded in His Revelation in spite of the fact it is written He is “the same yesterday, today and forever,” (Hebrews 13:8, NKJV)? His judgment among the churches is intensifying in these latter days because He has not changed nor abandoned what He inspired His apostle Peter to soberly write (1 Peter 4:17-18).2
Thus, Jesus Christ remains as He spoke to the messenger of the Laodicean church, “the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God,” (Revelation 3:14, NKJV). He is consistently and forever the standard and measure of truth so that those that know Him cannot help but say, “Amen” to whatever He says! Too, Jesus Christ is the standard and measure of faithfulness to God to the death; the ultimate “Witness” to what God requires in those faithful to Him! Finally also, He is positioned at the preeminent Head of creation and His Church as Creator, Savior, and Redeemer to the glory of God as the apostle Paul also declares (Colossians 1:13-18)!
Jesus Christ perfectly knows what a local church is supposed to look like as His design of the Church He assembles that transcends cultures, times and trends; reaching as she does into eternity (Ephesians 5:25-27)! For this reason, knowing the works of the church at Laodicea, He announces because they “are lukewarm,” “I will vomit you out of My mouth,” (Revelation 3:15-16, NKJV). This church was neither “cold” from lack of love for Christ as the church at Ephesus (Revelation 2:4) or “hot” with fervor and activity, but not through the Holy Spirit as the church at Sardis (Revelation 3:1-2) which were both painfully obvious in their need for correction and without repentance, judgment.
However, in being lukewarm the church at Laodicea like many large and suburban churches today are totally oblivious to their indifferent condition and are so sickening to the Lord in the manner of a stomach disturbance, He will violently vomit them out of His mouth! The cause of their lukewarm indifference toward the Lord and the faith is wealth. They were monetarily and materially well off and needed nothing they thought. And while being rich does not have to undercut the typical sense of dependence on Him most believers have who are not rich, the Laodiceans had allowed this to be the case for them. They could not see themselves as Christ did (Revelation 3:17).3
Speaking in the authority and infinite wisdom He presented Himself to this church, the Lord offers them “counsel” to obtain from Him “gold refined in the fire” so they might really be “rich” and other items to reverse their spiritual condition (Revelation 3:18, NKJV). Refined gold represents the faith-filled hard, but abundant life of one of His self-denying, cross bearing faithful disciples (Luke 9:21-26, 12:13-21, 18:18-30; John 10:10; 1 Timothy 6:6-16; 1 Peter 1:3-9)!4 As sick to the point of vomiting them out of His mouth as their self-satisfied indifference has made Him, the Lord acts to “rebuke and chasten” this church in “love” as He does all. He then charges them to be “zealous and repent;” to hear Him outside knocking and open “the door,” (Revelation 3:19-20, NKJV).
Once more too, the Lord speaks to him that would overcome and affirms one of His consistently made promises to reign with Him as a reward for faithfulness; the one who overcomes “granted” by Him to sit on His throne with Him as He “overcame” and sat down with His Father on His throne (Luke 22:28-30; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Timothy 2:11-13; 1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:4-6, 3:21, 5:5-10, NKJV). He then issues His standing directive to those in the church at Laodicea and where you attend with “an ear,” “to hear what the Spirit says to the churches,” (Revelation 3:22, NKJV). Clearly, a wealthy church flush in money, but spiritually indifferent does not impress the Lord. The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Read my February 9, 2014 post, Is There No King Among Us?, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 See the June 10, 2018 post, God’s Judgment Upon His House, under the category, Bible Prophecy and God’s Creatures.
3 While spiritual indifference may produce the busy works of religion, it never produces righteousness! This is why God can never be pleased with spiritual indifference
as He spoke through the prophet, Amos, to the eighth century B.C. ten northern tribes of Israel including specifically and harshly, wealthy women and judged them
(Amos 3:9-4:5, 5:10-15, 21-24, 6:1-8). It is also why Christ speaks in an attitude of revulsion toward it manifested in the first century A.D. church at Laodicea and all
that would follow them in guilt to the end. Such churches with thousands of dollars in the bank (in many cases for nothing but a rainy day to spend lavishly on them-
selves) have looked smugly at needy ministries like this one from our inception and refused to support us not realizing in their blindness that Christ ever looking and
booking, is going to judge them for this!
4 I write about the way of biblical disciples of Jesus Christ 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.
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