My Thoughts

Thursday, September 10, 2015

No, I’m not referring to Paul’s statement in Acts 17:23!  The one I am addressing is a modern one accepted by most churches.  Yes, churches!  Yes, even churches of Christ.

Some have stuck their heads into the proverbial sand and refuse to recognize the real world.  Our government, followed by a rapidly compliant business world, is following in the footsteps of an ancient society described by scripture.

“How horrible it will be for those people!  They pull their guilt and their sins behind them, just as people pull wagons with ropes. . . .How horrible it will be for people who call evil things ‘good,’ and good things ‘evil.’  They think that darkness is light, and light is darkness.  They think that sour is sweet, and sweet is sour.  How horrible it will be for people who think they are wise.  They think they’re so clever. . .They receive money to set the guilty free.  But they won’t allow innocent people to be judged fairly.  Therefore, they will be destroyed.”  (Isaiah 5:18, 20-21, 23-24a IEB).

Pulpits could warn and expose this wickedness, but many will remain silent.  Why?

Their god is their “non-profit status”!  In the 1950’s, Lyndon Johnson caused the churches to make a deal with the devil with the 501C3 designation.  Churches would lose their tax exempt status if their pulpits didn’t stay out of politics.  What is ironic is that the Constitution already exempted churches prior to Lyndon Johnson!  My, my, how deceptive Satan has been, from the Garden to the White House, but we’re too blind to notice  (Genesis 3:1-6).

If today’s trend continues, it will soon become illegal for churches to meet!  Impossible some say, speaking from their sand traps!  Tell that to Kim Davis of Kentucky who was recently released from jail!  A 2009 Federal law already makes it a “hate crime” to speak against homosexuality from the pulpit!  Now that SCOTUS has made same-sex marriage the law, “gays” will find a way to force churches and Christian schools to comply!  Wickedness hates righteousness, even using biblical passages to destroy it as their leader once attempted to do (Matthew 4:5-6).  When the church is driven underground, what comfort will a tax exempt status offer?

If sand isn’t still blurring our vision, look at recent history!  Does anyone remember when there were Christian prayers and Bible reading in public schools rather than Islamic ones?  Remember when abortion was illegal?  Remember when homosexuality was against the law?  Remember when same-sex marriage was unheard of?  Remember when refusal of service wasn’t against the law?  How comforting is that sand?  It seems to be affecting our memory!

The god called “Politics”!  Preachers don’t want to offend members who put party affiliation above faith, even if that party is indulging in the sins described by Isaiah!

The god of ignorance and apathy!  Political correctness is the deity of Washington D.C. spreading its poison “From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam” and beyond.

Perhaps, like Israel, the only thing that will bring our heads out of the sand is Israel’s fate!

“And when people view the land, look, they will see only darkness and distress.  All light will become dark in those thick clouds.” (Isaiah 5:30 IEB).