The Scourge Of Racism
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My mother used to steadfastly resist my beggarly appeals to go do what the other kids were doing with, “If all the kids go jump off a cliff, are you going to do it too?” Of course, I said “no.” However, for all of the sinful things I did do following after the crowd as a youth, I may as well have said yes. Similarly, many pastors, elders, church leaders and professing Christians as members shamefully follow after each other’s breaks with God’s Word and worldly compromises in sin. Like the carnal Corinthians of old, contemporary professing Christians have even divided themselves up with short hand labels (1 Corinthians 1:10-13, 3:1-4).
The Lord’s call to take His side in these latter days has nothing to do with the carnal divisions and labels of sinful human invention--or is the Lord to be blamed for this evil as some would have us believe by the fanatical loyalties they display to their political, social and theological factions? No, but it is the Lord Jesus who dogmatically declared, “…every city or house divided against itself will not stand,” (Matthew 12:25, NKJV). Clearly, the many in the divided house of American churches have decided an apparently dead Jesus was wrong on this point though the evidence of collapse to the contrary is all around us. In this blog, the Lord leads me to briefly talk about what His side looks like.
Originally Published January 2011
In these days of tolerance and avoiding even the appearance of being divisive, calling for Christians to take the Lord's side sounds extreme. However, those who think this act as if the Lord Jesus is dead. Such persons show their willful disregard of Bible truth and the reality that if Christ is proclaimed as risen from the dead, He is in fact, alive right now! This is exactly the truth and reality that is intended to be communicated in the post-resurrection and ascension descriptions of encounters the apostles had with the Lord (Acts 9:1-6, 10:9-16, 18:9-10, 23:11; Revelation 1:9-20).
If the Lord Jesus is alive as Scripture testifies and every truly born again believer knows from personal experience, then He knows the contemporary condition of His churches. If the Lord knows the contemporary condition of His churches, then He as Lord would speak to and deal with them in perfect consistency with the whole counsel of God found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This is what He is shown to be doing in Revelation 2:1-3:22 among seven churches of Asia Minor. As He did not speak to those churches in terms of worldly political labels such as conservative and liberal, so He does not speak to us this way either.
The Lord has His own side that stands in judgment of our sin driven divisions in and among the churches. Indeed, as the Strong Man of God, Jesus Christ perfectly models the divine heart plainly laid out in Scripture which those bent on corruption distort to their shame and destruction (2 Peter 3:14-16)! He is neither politically conservative nor liberal. He is however, biblically conservative in preserving God's Word as it is written and therefore, simultaneously liberal in love. His biblical worldview colors every aspect of His dealings with this world. He calls every aspiring strong man of God to embrace His example as those taking His side.
The Lord made it clear to even the strictest of Pharisees shackled by legalism and manmade religion, He did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17-20). In preserving God’s will in His written Word for example, the Lord Jesus (our Creator in the flesh) is completely opposed to murder. Human life is sacred and so it is written in the Ten Commandments, '''You shall not murder,'" (Exodus 20:13, NKJV). By His design human life begins at conception (Psalm 139:13-16). Therefore, to forcibly terminate a human life in the womb after conception is murder in the eyes of the Lord. Professing Christians that support abortion for any reason are not on the Lord's side.
The Lord Jesus taught and put the love of God on display through forgiveness, a myriad of healing works and His death on the cross for our sins. Tragically, Satan has deceived many that call themselves liberal Christians into believing that the Lord's acts of love were done outside of the Law. They were not. The love displayed by the Lord Jesus was in concert with and fulfilled the Law as He had declared (Mark 12:28-34; Romans 13:8-10). Consequently, those calling themselves conservative Christians that tell a man to get a job, but then with cold hearts block his way through racial discrimination are not on the Lord's side.1
The scribes and Pharisees of Israel were meticulous observers of the Law and yet, were called hypocrites by the Lord because they pursued minor elements such as tithing, but neglected the weightier provisions of justice, mercy and faith. Jesus said they should have done both (Matthew 23:23). Many conservative Christians in like manner fail to display God's love poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) while upholding His Word. Many liberals with fallen human love fail to uphold God's Word (1 Corinthians 13:4-6). Sin is never downplayed in the Bible at the expense of being loving or socially concerned (Isaiah 1:16-17; John 8:2-12). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 See my booklet, The Scourge Of Racism, (Portland, OR: Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc., Publishing Division, 2005), p 57. Purchase the booklet on the Resources Page, www.fromslaverytovictory.org.
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