Palestinian #Christians are terrified of being forced to go south, because they are considered pagans, heathens, and idol-worshippers by #Hamas. They have seen the genocide that #ISIS launched against Christians. Please do not let this happen!
OPEN LETTER
https://t.co/SIfoqgkFXB
I sometimes feel sorry for the prophet Jeremiah. He had to give the people such negative messages. And most of the people who heard his messages didn’t like what they heard. Personally, I believe we need more people like Jeremiah today giving negative messages about where the culture and church are at! Now that will horrify people who say we should never give negative messages.
For instance, I’ve heard certain Christians claim that I shouldn’t be negative as I point out the LGBTQ movement, abortion activists, gender perversion, critical race theory, social justice, and the many other issues swirling around the culture in a tornado of moral relativism. I’m told I should stop being so negative as that’s just “hate speech,” and talk about love. Well, if this were correct, I would have to stop quoting God’s Word! Jeremiah would have had to stop his prophetic messages that God instructed him to give!
I remember as a child hearing the schoolmaster warning us about things we should not do unless we wanted to be disciplined. There sure were a lot of rules—a lot of negativity from the schoolmaster we could say. Don’t do this or that, and if you do this, you will be disciplined this way, and so on. As a child, I wondered, “Why so many rules?”
Then as I read the Bible, I understood that God gave the Israelites numerous laws (rules). In fact, there are a lot of warnings and “do nots” throughout Scripture.
Galatians 3:24 in the King James Version reads, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” We needed our “schoolmaster” to understand what is right and wrong. But we have a problem called sin. (No wonder the schoolmaster had a lot of rules for us, as he knew we weren’t perfect and were liable to do things we shouldn’t.)
The purpose of the law was to expose our sin (Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned”) and to show us that we can’t save ourselves since we can’t keep the law perfectly. The law was given to point us toward the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ alone. As the Apostle Paul states in Romans 5:1, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” I remember my father drumming into us that justification means “just as if I hadn’t sinned.” I have never forgotten that.
In Genesis 4:7, God warns Cain, “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Cain wanted to do things his way, and God was warning him that sin was about to have mastery over him. Cain didn’t listen to the warning God gave, and out of jealousy he killed his brother Abel. He let his sin nature master over him. We need to remember that about our sin nature daily.
My point is that, in a sense, there’s a lot of negativity throughout Scripture because we live in a fallen world. As a result of our sin nature, we are more prone to do what is wrong than what is right. We are more prone to be influenced by the fallen world than for us to impact the world with what is right. Jeremiah gave such a message to God’s people. And I’ve heard people accuse Jeremiah of being too negative. But Jeremiah was a prophet of the Lord, and what he spoke is part of the inspired, inerrant, written Word of God. The negative messages Jeremiah gave were from God! He warned the people just as we need to be warned today about not letting our sin nature get the better of us.
Jeremiah warned the people, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Learn not the way of the nations,’” (Jeremiah 10:2) and “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:11).
Speaking of the true God, Jeremiah proclaimed, “It is he who made the earth by his power, who established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding stretched out the heavens” (Jeremiah 10:12). Speaking of those who were worshipping false gods, Jeremiah stated, “Every man is stupid and without knowledge” (Jeremiah 10:14). How is that for a negative message!
Many in the church today would claim that Jeremiah was being too negative. But Jeremiah, as a prophet, was pointing out the wrong things people were doing and then pointing them to the true God they needed to worship.
There is a great need today for us to warn people about the evil happening around us in the culture “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14). As we bring up children we have to give them negative messages about not crossing busy streets the wrong way, not playing in dangerous areas, not eating or drinking poisonous substances and so on.
Because of our sin nature, we have to be diligent to ensure we don’t become captive to the evil ways of the world. We can so easily be influenced by that which is wrong.
We do need to warn people and give them the “negative” message. For instance, we need to warn people that they are sinners and, as such, would spend eternity separated from God. But to go with that, we teach the good (positive) news that our God, through his Son, provided a means of salvation for those who will receive it, so that we can spend eternity with the Lord.
We also need to warn people about the evils of certain movements that are impacting generations of kids (for example, LGBTQ, critical race theory, social justice, and gender issues, and many more), but also point them to the Word of God to help them build a truly Christian worldview and impact people around them—including their children and grandchildren and great grandchildren—with the truth of God’s Word and the gospel.
So should Christians be negative? In a fallen world we need to be negative but for the right reason—to help people understand the evil consequences of sin and point them to the positive message of the saving gospel through the Lord Jesus Christ. But as well as the negative messages, we must also be giving the positive messages too.
@aigkenham Well said! Jesus declared to the Father Thy Word is Truth. The plain meaning of the text is the right meaning! No literary gymnastics reimagining Genesis 1-11 has ever set well with me no matter how credentialed and impressive the spokesperson. Prov 23:23 Buy Truth, sell not!!
For many of you who have read my recent posts, you will notice how many Christians get very upset & quite emotional at times over my insistence the days of creation are ordinary days & the earth can't be billions of years old but only about 6000 years.
I don't find such people getting so emotional about the way I interpret the word day anywhere else in Scripture. Why is there such an emotional reaction when it comes to issues involving the age of the earth & days of creation.
I believe it comes down to the following:
1. People are in awe of science because of the technology we have. So when the majority of scientists insist the earth is billions of years old, even many Christians think they can't go against this. But they don't understand that dealing with beliefs about the past is not the same science as dealing with our observational science of the present that builds technology.
2. For many Christian academics, there's an incredible peer pressure from the secular scientists of the world. Such academics don't want to be called anti-academic, anti-scientific etc. And one usually won't get published by mainstream scientific & theological Journals (most of which are more supportive of liberal ideas) if one is deemed to be a literal biblical creationist like we are at @AiG.
3. For many Christians, & Christian leaders it becomes a pride issue. I've found pastors who have taught the Gap Theory all their life (which is a compromise position to add millions of years into the bible) & most of them (not all, as I've seen some humble men of God who did admit they held to a wrong position & changed) can't swallow their pride to admit they are wrong.
4. Our sin nature which is summed up in Genesis 3:1 & 3:5 is that we are prone to accept the fallible words of man rather than take God at His Word. I see this all the time in the church where so many leaders would rather accept the beliefs of man concerning billions of years that the clear Word of God. We need to stop letting our sin nature master us.
5. It takes courage in a world where men "loved darkness rather than light" to stand against the majority of scientists. But remember, the majority didn't survive the Flood. Just because the majority believe something doesn't mean it's correct. Many examples of this can be illustrated from history.
6. Many pastors don't want to cause division in their churches by taking a stand on a literal Genesis. Even some conservative pastors have told me they steer away from Genesis as it does create division. But there will always be people who will be adamant that the earth is billions of years old & the days of creation aren't ordinary days. Some pastors are worried about losing financial support. But Genesis 1-11 is the foundation for all doctrine, our morality, our worldview, & the rest of the bible. There's so much biblical illiteracy because so many leaders won't teach Genesis as they should, & this is a major factor as to why the younger generations are so secularized & leaving the church. And when leaders are soft on Genesis, I find they often get soft on LGBTQ etc.
Actually the right sort of division is a good thing & needed "for there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized" (1 Corinthians 11:19).
7. The devil knows if he can destroy the foundation, the structure will fall. Genesis 1-11 is the foundation for everything. That's why there's so much attack on it.
8. Secularists know if they don't have the billions of years, they can't propose their evolutionary ideas. That's why they get so emotional about this & intimidate people as time is their god--they need the time--they have to have the time. And sadly so many Christians give in to their billions of years beliefs thus helping these secularists undermine God's Word & attack the church.
9. Many people reinterpret Genesis as they start outside Scripture with man's beliefs, not start with it & judge those beliefs!
All eyes focus on (another?) Asbury revival https://t.co/YVZsLXVdwQ via @kytodayeditor Oh Lord, may you truly revive your church in the midst of these years!!
BREAKING PART 1: Federal Govt @HHSgov Whistleblower Goes Public with Secret Recordings
‘Government Doesn’t Want to Show the [COVID] Vaccine is Full of Sh*t’
They ‘Shove’ Adverse Effect Reporting ‘Under the Mat’
#CovidVaxExposed https://t.co/TyHUZptHiD
@bypaullawrence If I had more info of events of the day my tweet would have been different. My comment about bias banning was before i knew about DC events. Since then very sick about what happened. Sad day indeed.
So are the pimply faced fact checkers on Twitter Lies inc and Facebook Frauds to deny what millions know happened and want answers not silence or censorship