Thursday, January 18, 2018

A reminder

This is not a Left/Right thing.  Nor is it a political thing.  But it's an important reminder:

"18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; 21 for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles.24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a base mind and to improper conduct. 29 They were filled with all manner of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity, they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them."   Romans 1:18-32

Note that last line.  The last part of it.  They approve those who practice them.  There was a time when Christians, certainly the Christians I first knew, lived seriously the warning God gave Ezekiel.  If God says to the wicked 'you shall surely die', and Ezekiel does not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked man shall die in his sins, but his blood will be required at Ezekiel's hand.

In other words, if we who have been given much (adoption by the Living God through belief in the Gospel of His Son Jesus), sit on our butts and don't warn the world of its folly, then God will require their blood from us.  Or blood in some spiritual, eschatological manner.

Sometimes I get the impression that there are more than we think within the Church, and the Christian Faith in general, who have jettisoned the basics of all the Church has ever taught. It's like we're worried about being loved by the world, embraced by the world, accepted by the world, or not made fun of by the world, but not so much about what the Scriptures have taught through the ages.

Think on that.  Again, it's not a Right/Left thing, though despite the insistence of LGBT activists, it does touch on a particular sin now embraced and advocated by the Left.  It can apply to other issues as well.  Though they know God’s decree that those who do such things deserve to die, they not only do them but approve those who practice them.  It's worth remembering. It's also worth remembering that Paul's subsequent admonition against judging does not negate the importance he felt in laying out this moral appraisal of fallen humanity in the first place.

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