Finding Strength in Hard Times
For Christians, hard times might not be the blight on our existence we think them to be. If we believe God’s word, which reminds us that God is working in our favor as much in the hard times as in the good, we have no reason to panic during the difficult days, as we are prone to do.
The good times are to be expected, and the hard times are surprising and strange. Perhaps that unconscious assumption is causing us grief. In his book Jayber Crow, Wendell Berry describes the “old-timers” in a way that seems lost on many people today. He says: “As much as any of the old-timers, he regarded the Depression as not over and done with but merely absent for a while, like Halley’s comet.”
Though many wrongly interpret this disposition as fear, there can be health in this way of thinking. For many of us, politicians have promised us the world, and we have believed them. Conservatives and liberals alike often feel that the state of our existence should always be one of constant progress and that if we had the right politicians in place, humanity could build its tower to heaven. This thinking, of course, is foolish. There are good days and bad days ahead for all of us. Sickness, economic collapse, and natural disasters are nothing new. They have all happened in the past, and they will occur again in the future. Scripture tells us that when fiery trials come upon us, we should not think something strange is happening to us (1 Pet. 4:12). Though this verse applies primarily to persecution, it is true of any hardship.
To make this more personal, as long as our health is robust and our jobs feel secure, we think we can handle anything, but in the words of the late Rich Mullins, “We are not as strong as we think we are.”
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Militant Christianity?
The great question in our democracy today is whether we can educate a generation that will cherish liberty enough to fight for it. It will not be enough to have the best trained, best equipped, best clothed soldiers in the field against Communism. Somehow we must match the will to fight, the morale of a high ideal with that of our enemy before democracy will be safe. In much the same manner the Church today will not serve Christ’s cause effectively even though she has the best equipment, the finest training, and the most beautiful liturgy, unless she hates evil and is willing to go out to destroy the works of the devil.
We are not mere spectators to be entertained while sitting in the bleachers, but we are antagonists, combatants, contestants we are all involved.
One of the discouraging signs of our times is the prevailing tendency on the part of many diplomats toward appeasement. In a world which is actually at war the peoples of democratic mind hesitate to face the reality that they are up against a subtle, resourceful, and utterly heartless foe. That cessation of hostilities is merely an armed truce to be used for gaining certain advantages is not yet fully recognized. ThaI modern war against Communist ideology is a total war, a war which must be waged on the economic, social, political, and industrial as well as the military front is hard for us to accept. This is, indeed, not altogether strange since we arc accustomed to think that peace is the normal condition in this world. We are ever loathe to accept the realism of biblical prophecy which clearly tells us that at the end-time there shall be wars and rumors of wars instead of world peace.
However, when such a benumbing attitude of appeasement seems well nigh universal in the Church of Christ, which by very definition is at war with the world, then, I say, the situation calls for serious thought and drastic action! It is to this lack of militancy in the Church that this article is directed. We need to be reminded of the fact that God calls us to a holy warfare in which we must be engaged actively and totally.
The most prevalent and provocative picture of the Christian given in Scripture is that of the warrior involved. in a life and death struggle against the forces of God’s enemies. For this conflict we have been recruited by Christ, our Captain. He calls us to fight the good fight of faith, to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil—with the promise that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us and gave himself for us. It will not do for us to be satisfied merely because we might have had better equipment and superior training, such as some of us are getting in the Christian schools, the doctrine classes, and the weekly preaching of the Word in our houses of worship. Without the will to resist the world, to oppose the evil one, without the militant mind we shall not maintain the cause of Christ or bring luster to his banner.
The Old Testament Expression of this Militancy
But how can we be convinced of the need for such a militant mind? How can we escape from the pacifistic, inclusivistic spirit of the modern, liberal church? “To the Word and to the testimony!” That is the only solution, Like the Bereans of old we ought to study the Scriptures to see whether these things are as represented.
Soon, then, we discover that the great Covenant Jehovah himself initiated the militant mind at the very gates of Paradise. You are aware of the setting, Satan was the first fifth columnist. He had infiltrated behind our lines. Adam, who was to “keep the garden,” was not on the job. The devil deceived Eve and gained an initial victory. Man fell away from God. He went over to the enemy. But God in his grace restored errant mankind to himself, to his fellowship, service and allegiance. Moreover, by that act God declared war upon the devil, calling all his allies to militant opposition: “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:15). Here in the “mother promise” is the first preaching of the gospel, to be sure, but also in this key text is an announcement that war is an actuality of universal scope involving all of Eve’s children!
Be sure to notice that the issue is not left in doubt, nor is the fact of our personal participation dubious. It is evident that God himself instilled the enmity against the devil and his cohorts. He is the creator of the militant mind! It is clear that if we lack this militancy we must be lacking in fervor and allegiance for the cause of our God.
Furthermore, we ought to observe that this enmity was maintained by Jehovah as in succeeding generations he called men to his colors. Noah condemned the world by building an ark to the saving of his house. Abraham did the same in his day by leaving his homeland and wandering as a pilgrim and a stranger “as in a strange country.” Jeremiah was called by God “to root up, and to pull down, and to destroy.” In establishing this enmity the covenant-keeping God not only separated his people, but also guided, protected, and trained them to holy warfare. In the Old Testament that separation and warfare was physical as well as spiritual. Israel was instrumental in destroying the might of Pharaoh, as well as the annihilation of the Amalekites. God also commanded them to root out the iniquitous Canaanites for the cup of their guilt was running over. Samuel killed Agag, David carried on the battles of the Lord, and Elijah had the priests of Baal slain at the brook Kidron.
Let us beware that we do not fall into the error of the modernists, who sit in judgment upon God by condemning this Old Testament warfare as contrary to the Spirit of Christ.
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Forget the Trans Pronouns—and All the Other Harmful Lies
One of his most recent and most destructive assaults on us all is via the trans activists. Transgenderism is a diabolical war on reality, biology, truth and people, and it is mainly a full frontal attack on our kids.
The more I think about it, the more diabolical things appear to be. We do not just have bad philosophies and bad ideologies and bad social policies and bad political agendas. We have satanic philosophies and satanic ideologies and satanic social policies and satanic political agendas. The god of this world is fully behind them all.
The truth is, Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy, as Jesus made clear in John 1:10. Name your poison: abortion on demand, the war on marriage and family, the scourge of drugs, the porn plague, the radical woke agenda items, and so on. They all cause tremendous harm and often death.
The devil does his evil work in so many ways, and children are especially in his sights. One of his most recent and most destructive assaults on us all is via the trans activists. Transgenderism is a diabolical war on reality, biology, truth and people, and it is mainly a full frontal attack on our kids.
But like just about anything that the enemy uses to cause carnage and havoc, plenty of clueless and carnal Christians will happily go right along with it. Thus we have pro-abortion “Christians,” pro-homosexuality “Christians,” and pro-trans “Christians”.
In my book, any Christian who supports and promotes the trans militancy in the name of ‘tolerance’ and ‘love’ is simply playing into the enemy’s hands. They have no clue what biblical love means, and they have no clue what Scripture actually teaches.
Simply put, if you love someone, you do NOT want them to go through invasive and irreversible surgeries and procedures that will leave them damaged for life. There is nothing loving about that. And even playing the pronouns game is unloving. Telling lies and denying reality is not how we help anyone.
Truth telling is what these confused and hurting people need—not falsehoods. Back in 2019 I penned a piece on why we should not buy the trans pronoun nonsense. Among other things, I quoted professor Robert Gagnon:
I am stunned that any leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, much less the President, would be contending that faithful Christians should practice so-called “pronoun hospitality” in addressing “transgender” persons by their delusional pretend sex. The idea that Jesus or Paul would have referred to a man as a woman or a woman as a man in anything other than satire and derision for abhorrent behavior is absurd revisionism in the extreme.
It is not an act of “hospitality” or “respect” to the offender but rather (1) a scandal to the weak and young in the church and a rightful violation of conscience for many that will lead many to stumble to their ruin; (2) an accommodation to sin that God finds utterly abhorrent; and (3) a complicity in the offender’s self-dishonoring, self-degrading, and self-demeaning behavior that does him no favor because it can get him (or her) excluded from the kingdom of God. Am I being obtuse here?
What’s next? Treating as a married couple an incestuous union involving a man and his mother, allegedly as a show of hospitality and honoring of their own perspective? Is that what they think Paul would have done at Corinth? Treating the man and his stepmother as “husband” and “wife” so as to extend “hospitality” and “respect”? What kind of revisionist lunacy is this?
I can’t believe that there is no serious push-back on this in the Southern Baptist Convention….I don’t really see what the point is of the SBC having an inerrancy doctrine if it leads to leaders encouraging their congregations to call men women and women men, which in God’s eyes would be blaspheming his work as Creator. I would expect this kind of nonsense from the PCUSA, not the SBC. I am in utter disbelief. Is this something that Al Mohler would approve of? And if not, has he said anything against it? And if not, why not?
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Sheep Need a Shepherd
In today’s culture, too many pastors are giving the sheep what they want, not what they need. What is needed today is truth—not a post modern truth, but biblical truth. Feeding the flock a steady diet of biblical preaching is the only true spiritual food. It’s popular to be trendy YouTube-celebrity pastor, but avoid such temptations. Just preach the Word of God—feed the sheep the Word, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, so they will get the nourishment they need.
Sheep need a shepherd. Wandering sheep are a danger to themselves. Jesus had compassion upon the multitudes of people following Him: “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd” (Matthew 9:36). Jesus helped multitudes of people—those with illnesses, blindness, lepers, demon-possessed, and even raising the dead. Yet, all these are temporary. Jesus saw beyond their physical ailments; He saw the deep spiritual need. Physical healings, no matter how miraculous, are temporal.
The compassion Jesus felt was genuine, not figurative. Yes, healing was happening, but emptiness still was there. He identified the reason for it: they had no shepherd. The spiritual need for healing far exceeds the physical. One can be healed physically, and yet still die without Christ.
Jesus looked beyond the temporal. He saw them distressed and dispirited. The ESV says, “harassed and helpless,” and the NKJV reads, “weary and scattered.” No matter the rendering, the fact is they were confused and wondering. Even after all the physical miracles, there remained a grave concern—their spiritual condition.
The very ones responsible for being their shepherds were the ones causing confusion and hopelessness. Jesus identified the hypocrisy of these false shepherds: “Therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger” (Matthew 23:3-4).
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