Treading Shaky Ground

Believers were warned by Jesus: "You will be hated by all for My Name's sake" Matthew 10:22; "If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you" John 15:18; and "Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets" Luke 6:26.

Pretty much everyone has a desire to be liked and loved. However, those who prefer to walk in darkness hate the light just as they hate the Source of the Light until their eyes are opened to the Truth. Many evangelicals are responding in a misguided manner that exposes all to danger.

They are as a result cherry-picking the Scriptures, carefully selecting those passages they will live by and which they will ignore. We are not given the privilege of serving as "leopard" Christians, believing that the Word is true only in spots and we are gifted with the knowledge of which spots. This results in rejection of Biblical teaching on sexual purity, marriage, abortion, perversion and salvation through faith in Jesus' completed work only.

Why is this? Our flesh craves a good relationship with the world. All too often believers so adapt their own lives that anyone observing would have a challenge telling the saved from the perishing. The devil does not mind our playing church so much as when we get real about it. If we accept the things the Word condemns, this will not ensure the media and Hollywood accept the Church. It may well however lead to rejection by God. Luke 9:26: "For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels." "Rev 3:15-16: "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot: I would you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue you out of my mouth."

Today the push-back against anyone who stands solidly for Biblical truth is more harsh than for many decades. This backlash can come from strangers on the Internet or on the street, from friends and co-workers outside of the Church, or even from many who claim the Name of Jesus devoid of a relationship inside of the church.

Churches and believers at large must teach the crucial fundamental doctrines, such as literal creation, the fall of man, the redeeming grace of God who sent His Son to set aside His deity, be born of a virgin, live perfectly as a man, suffer, die and be raised again from the dead in full payment for the sins of mankind. They must tutor the "baby" Christians to boldly yet in love defend their faith regardless of the resistance and hostility they may encounter. Older believers must set the example in word and deed.