PERSECUTION AND THE ATTEMPT TO FIND APPROVAL THROUGH PC GODS

It is true that our youth are abandoning the Church. In light of this troubling desertion, today’s Church is told that it is a failure and must change. This attitude is reflected by many. Just today, I saw an advertisement for a new Meetup conversation group called “Recovering Church Kids.” I was interested and read further:

·       There are so many of us who have been told that we no longer belong in faith circles. Today, we launch our own. A space where we can embody the acceptance and true love. We affirm that God is Love without settling for the BS of the Traditional Church. We create healthy and holy digital spaces on our own to lift up, encourage and try to make sense of our past religious experiences.

I signed up, but I’m not expecting my heart to be warmed. This is the city, where the apostasy from the Biblical faith is heart-wrenching. Nevertheless, it seems that this group is not dispensing with everything that they have been taught in church. They still want to believe that “God is Love,” but which God will they be preaching? A politically correct and agreeable god or the God of the Bible? Will they also dispense with the Cross of Christ and the Gospel, which is an offense to many, even a stench (2 Corinthians 2:14-16)?

However, if they refuse to follow Jesus’ teaching, they have no right to call themselves “Christian.” Here’s how I see it. Christ never called into question one word of the Scriptures. Instead, He had the highest possible opinion of Scripture. Jesus regarded it all as the very Words of God. When tempted by the Devil, He relied exclusively on Scripture:

·       Jesus answered [the Devil], "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4 quoting Deut. 8)

Jesus did not set Himself above Scripture as its judge to decide which verses were truly inspired. Therefore, if any reject just one word of the Scriptures, they cannot call themselves “followers of Jesus,” who never rejected any single word. Instead, He received “every word” as God’s Word:

·       "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)

If Jesus had regarded the Word as errant in some respect, He would never have said “until everything is accomplished.” Instead, He might have said, “Until every part that is without error is accomplished.” Rather, He continually insisted that everything had to be fulfilled:

·       He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself… He said to them, "This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms." Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24: 25-27, 44-45)

Notice how Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, rather than His own Word. Whenever He quoted from the Scriptures, it was always affirming what Scripture had said. Never once did He disparage Scripture. Instead, He castigated those who didn’t know the Scriptures:

·       Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

They didn’t know Scripture because they didn’t esteem it, despite their protestations to the contrary:

·       "But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?" (John 5:45-47)

In contrast to the religious leadership, Jesus believed in what Moses had written and that Scripture could not be broken” (John 10:35). He even regarded the Psalms as ultimately authored by God. Quoting from Psalm 110, Jesus claimed that David was “speaking by the Spirit”:

·       He said to them, "How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord'? (Matthew 22:43)

Never once did Jesus raise the question about a single verse as to its divine origin. Consequently, if we are serious about Jesus, we have to take the same view of the Scriptures as He did.

It seems that Jesus prophesied of these days:

·       Beware of men, for they will deliver you over to courts and flog you in their synagogues, and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death. (Matthew 10:17-21 ESV)

However, never once did Jesus suggest that this oppression would be the result of the Church teaching “BS.” Instead, rejecting the Biblical church in favor of another was a matter of finding social acceptance of the culture, even popularity. He therefore prophesied:

·       “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)

Jesus never promised that we would become so perfect that no one would be able to speak a word against us. Instead, persecution would come become of our faithfulness to the Word and not our departure from it.