“19 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother. 20 And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.” – Mark 10:19-21

I woke up thinking about this post from Sunday night and its implications in today’s churches. In this section of Scripture, the rich young ruler tells Jesus that he has kept the law from his youth. Only Mark, of the three synoptic Gospels, records more closely the physical interaction between that man and Jesus. Perhaps Mark, who many consider to be an eyewitness to much of Christ’s time in public life, was in a position to see his Master, where Matthew was not, and Luke, we reckon, was not there.

Only Mark records, “Then Jesus beholding him loved him.” We’ve heard some speculation about this in preaching and teaching. Some say the love Christ showed was actually pity for the man because he must have lied about keeping the law. And yet others have attempted to reduce the significance of the moment and the non-verbal response of our Lord.

During travels this last summer, I attended a Wednesday night meeting at a small church. In becoming acquainted with the Pastor before the service, he revealed that we would discuss the Ark of the Covenant, which contained the law of God until the temple(s) was built, where the law was then held in the holiest of holies. The Pastor asked me and a few others from his church in the pre-meeting discussion where the ark is now. Well, I said it was in heaven, always has been in heaven; the ark and the temple were merely types or a picture of the throne room of God. Fortunately, only a few people heard me because I gave away the conclusion to his lesson. The Pastor offered for me to stay in his RV while passing through. Good folks, down to earth. A discussion with a very recent convert was especially fruitful and enjoyable. It’s always a delight to meet newer believers. That night’s lesson did not mention the section of Mark above, but you’ll see the point momentarily.

Back to the rich young ruler and Jesus. Why wouldn’t Jesus have looked upon a man with love who had kept His law? The law was given by God, and Christ is God, Himself being the law in the flesh; “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” Could that look of love have been God’s approval as He called the rich young ruler to follow Him to his own cross of martyrdom? The ruler kept the law but loved his stuff; this we all get. Having observed the ordinances, he was called to abandon the things of this life, going wheresoever the will of God would take him (Joshua 1:9).

There were attempts to downplay the law’s importance in those poor lessons about this passage. All failed to show that Jesus is God and that the law is The Word of God! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” – John 1:1.

It’s bothersome having never heard a preacher state simply that God loved him for keeping His law. Why is this so hard to say? Because it hurts, all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. God loved the man for keeping His law. The only way around this is to press incredulity losing the straightforward meaning of the interaction between Jesus and the ruler. We’re not saying that the man never sinned; only Jesus has done that. But he did, apparently, keep the Commandments Jesus cited.

The keeping of the law can never save a man’s soul, this we know, but where is the error in righteous living unto a holy God? Surely the churches are not advocating theft, dishonor of parents, deceiving, cheating, or killing, are they? Why can’t a man who believes, and is sure of his eternal station, keep the law? Is it so offensive to believers today?!?!

Some said the law was for the Jews, which is true, but if you search the Scripture, only the law of sacrifice (and the rules of Pharisees) has been done away with. We still live with sin today. The law remains and convicts the sinner unto repentance which is its purpose (1 Timothy 1:9). The implication is that some seem to claim that we can now, living under grace, pretend to be Christians while acting much like those headed to the devil’s lake of fire, which is a perilous new doctrine. But as the linked post from Sunday night shows, it may not be so new after all.

Wickedness remains; the law and God’s judgments are in the New Testament and are used by the Holy Spirit of God to bring conviction of sin in the heart of the lost man and believer alike. Yes, Jesus loves us and is the Saviour offering the gift of eternal life, but He is no less Lord (Romans 6:23).

When we witness to lost sinners, we use the simple example of a lie to prove their sin. Is this wrong to cite one of the Ten Commandments today? No, all men have lied. It’s a simple way to prove sin while not getting sidetracked into various debaucheries and sinful living. Slightly off-topic, but while we’re here: people under conviction might confess felonies. For many reasons, some obvious and some not, don’t let detailed discussion of sinful behaviors happen when talking to the lost; keep it simple; use the lie as a single primary example. Looking them right in the eye, you can tell them they’ve lied and done much worse. This drives the point home while sticking to the subject of salvation by the grace of God’s forgiveness of sin.

The law is in heaven; it’s always been with our holy God. The law is there in the throneroom with the four living creatures, all the holy angels, and the four and twenty elders on their faces saying, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” Amen.

The law is still there, right where it’s always been. The point is, if you’re in one of those churches that downplay righteous living for the Lord, get out and find a church that’s at least serious about all that God commands, teaching His whole counsel. People now verbally dancing around the law of God expect to stand in its very presence one day soon. God have mercy on them.

“11 For there is no respect of persons with God. 12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; 13 (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. 14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” Romans 2:11-16

We won’t go through this thoroughly now. I tell people to read these verses first as one reading. Then read what is not in parenthesis and then read, thirdly, what is between. This will significantly help with comprehension. The section outside parenthesis cannot save you by the law, nor will the part inside save you without the law; salvation is by Christ alone.

Assuming you never attempted the foolhardy life of trying to keep the law absent the Holy Spirit, when you sinned, you sinned without the law and were headed to perish in hell, but you had broken the law nonetheless. When God saved you by faith in Christ’s atoning death, burial, and resurrection, He forgave you forever. When you sin in the law, even today, having heard His word but being already saved, you have even less excuse not to live according to God! Is the law of Mighty God written on your heart, yes or no? We’re not telling you to stand before God depending on the law, but verse 15 indicates that God shows the work of the law written on our heart, our conscience also bearing witness.

The Church is trying to thread the needle between saying we have no obligation to the law and demanding righteous living; it’s not working. Everything is falling apart, and it started with the churches long before the government, family, and society went to the dogs. One reason a Reconstructionist approach attracts is that clearly, what the Church is doing isn’t working. And blaming our failures on escatology is a lousy excuse to accept rampant heathenism and an even worse excuse for believers to live like heathens themselves!

What is a Christian that spends his day as a liar, cheating, stealing, abusing family, etc.? Well, he’s not Christian; we know that. Those saved by Christ no longer live like that; that’s part of the miracle of salvation. We are being recreated in the image of God’s own Son and trying to live a life spent as the image of Christ to those around us. When Christ looks upon you, will He love you?

“16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. 17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, We will not hearken.” – Jeremiah 6:16-17

When you have strayed and sought out many inventions, taking new gods by worshiping the works of our hands (Jeremiah 1:16), the everlasting Father, in His word, commands God’s people to return to the old paths. He calls us to produce what is tried and true in classical society as set forth in His word to rebuild the reverence and adherence to God’s ordained structure for Church, Family, and State in the manner that it was intended from the very beginning of creation. And God demands Christ’s Church follow His commands, a righteous leader as the head of the family, and a just government with just ordinances that will implement the same law of God that blesses all the earth.

God is not a mean old man; His law is a beacon of warning that righteous men shall live in peace, finding rest for their souls, but the wicked will have no peace at all; foreigners will rule over them with a hard whip. Holy God will set stumbling blocks in the way, fathers and sons will fall, and neighbors with their friends will perish for lack of Jesus Christ. God will bring evil upon you; even the fruit of your wicked thoughts will be meted out to you who have forsaken Him.

So primarily, God warns us to return to Him, to worship and trust in Him, forsaking the new gods that have led only to societal rot through greed and lusts of the flesh. Return to the Gospel of Christ, and preach the whole counsel of God, teach the generations to be like Jesus Christ.

“Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” – Ecclesiastes 7:29

The many inventions spoken of are applicable and scalable to any that man’s mind can set above our Lord, be they religions, technology, idols, or ways to rule ourselves apart from His perfect law and word. God made us to seek the good, giving us an innate desire for faith in Him, to know Him, and pursue Him. Still, we create all manner of things that extinguish the mind and soul in time spent unfruitfully, separating us from God. Some of these things have become a religion of sorts, replete with idolization, worship, and sacraments.

The many inventions themselves become the false god of our adoration.

The call is not for a return to the days of pre-mechanical implements. This is critical to understand; lifestyle comes from a foundation in Christ. A change of lifestyle while on your way to hell is not what God is asking. The new things, the technological advancements, have blessed us in many ways but have, at a terrible cost, separated us from family, hearth and home, lands, and the labor of the heart working with our hands and having settled community structures of neighbors we know and count upon. Rootlessness coupled with unknown and untrusted people is causing great despair.

And America continues to tell God that we will not walk in the good way or seek His face and those old paths from the Father of our founding. But there is encouragement as many thousands are coming to realize the importance of family, local stability, and tradition while seeking the Lord. As dismayed as we may be regarding national issues, realizing that you can only fix yourself and your family is driving a mini-revival in America toward the old paths. Many are settling on a small patch, raising a few animals, homeschooling, and working toward traditional self-sufficiency. Pray it catches fire, and those not only return to sound families, food sources, culture, and localities but repent toward God and serve Him.

The watchmen are lame and do not warn (Ezekiel 33), teaching hyper-personalized comfort when every alarm bell rings with warnings of trouble on the horizon. They covet much when the charity of God is needed, and they say peace when war looms, and there is little shame of abomination in the sight of the Lord.

But a few men, known of God, are sounding the trumpet, telling any that will hear to hearken unto holy Father God, return to His law, return to His design in creation for your family and the just rule of law. Remove yourselves from the unclean things, and call on Christ. Many of us are too old now to return to the old ways, but we can pray, we can encourage, and we can teach.

There are men that love their wives first, before their children, which prioritizes showing their children what a godly husband does. This ends divorce if it’s done correctly and consistently. And it ends the multi-generational broken families, all because one man did what God commands and the sons were taught well by example. God will bless these efforts as it’s His law that puts the man’s wife above his children. And there are men who’ve known only one woman. This is a beautiful and amazing thing, and those I know are blessed beyond measure for their loyalty to God’s designed purposes.

And young women, too, are asking where the men of the old way are, where are our roots and structure that we may have hope in the future God wants for us; this is inspiring. Joyfully, many women don’t want to give their best years to a faceless corporate bureaucracy while standing on a mountain of debt for a Godless lifestyle while somebody else raises their children. They see a false choice in that and instead give their best years to one man, raising their family together, making a home in loving and nurturing as the helpmeet, which is their duty to the Almighty. Satisfying the commitment that Holy God demands will always fulfill one’s soul more so than any other thing.

Without the old paths and the good way, no rest for the soul comes; troubles appear at every arc with increasing rapidity while warnings of war, financial destitution, and famine are in the air. But still, waiting with open arms for you with forgiveness in His clemency, the only faithful and true God is offering the blessings of means to set yourself aright within the covenant of our fathers, to save your civilization, for a more promising glory than heretofore. Will you return to Him?

Stand in the ways of God and see if His blessings come upon you, your family, and your country. “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.” See how faithful He is; God’s mercies are new every morning.

First, admit your sin and failure to God. Determining to change your behavior is good, but without Christ, it’s not restorative to the soul or nation. There’s a generational work for you; ask the Almighty for the old paths, in which is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Pray for the traditional pathways and set about the business of restoration. Throughout Scripture, we are admonished to pray and then act. Many want to pray, yet others want to act, but God teaches in these verses what must come first and then second.

We know that His mercies are from everlasting to everlasting to those who do His will, keeping His law and ordering their life, family, and society according to the sure foundations of this ever-present truth: Christ is King and will have no other name above Him.

Isaiah 53

We’ve already explored why you were made in the Image and Likeness of God in three parts;  One,  Two, and Three. Those regard what we suppose our final estate to be. But the question before us now is, what is the image of Christ in men while God has seen fit to leave us here in anticipation of Christ’s return?

“For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.” – Isaiah 53:2

I’ve seen many “AI” renderings lately, the makers of which have supposed to be of our Lord Jesus Christ. The definition and use of AI is another topic, but the image of Christ is critical for believers to understand. Seeing these images got us thinking, what is the image of Christ?

There was nothing special about His appearance as a man. He was not particularly attractive or fascinating to gaze upon, and He was not especially stunning in outward physique or face. And He, being a working man, unquestionably wasn’t pretty and effeminate as so many Middle Ages paintings would depict. He looked like an average guy.

Isaiah 53 is the prophecy of the trial and crucifixion of Christ. The degree and intensity of humiliation are vividly displayed, for in being debased, smitten, and stricken of God for our sin, the Father hath highly exalted Him and given him a name which is above every name (Philippians 2:9). Isaiah 53 is the Scripture the Ethiopian Eunuch was reading when the Lord’s messenger of the Gospel, Phillip, showed Him the way of salvation (Acts 8:26-40).

Verse 2 shows us that there would be no outward appearance of His person that indicates He is the Lord. But it’s more than that. Why did God ordain, in His wisdom, that Christ should have no external beauty?

Humans are visual creatures. It’s the most prevalent of our five senses. We have 3d depth perception in one of the broadest color spectrums of any creature on earth. Humans become enamored with beauty for a season. Some men appreciate specific facial structures and adornments given by God, while other men may respect different ones.

We’ve seen folks enamored with the appearance of somebody to the point of refusing to acknowledge that soul’s inward condition and ugliness. And conversely, if Christ had been attractive, could any have heard His great word and the offer of the Kingdom? The Father, through Christ, was and is seeking a people to worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), not in outward impression.

Lovely, however, is the notion that He grew before God as a tender shoot, indeed, born of a virgin, God in a helpless child nurtured into manhood. So too that He grew from dry ground, an infertile hard pack where no life of the Spirit would grow; all Israel hadn’t heard from God in 400 years and was far astray from the Holy Creator of heaven and earth when John Baptist came preaching repentance toward God making way for the Holy One. Jesus arrived right on time, according to the prophet Daniel. But, praise God, not all were in darkness; some waited for the consolation of Israel and the Kingdom of God at His appearing. Simeon in the temple – Luke 2:25 and Joseph of Arimathea, who buried Christ’s body – Mark 15:43, are two examples.

“Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.” – Isaiah 53:10

Isaiah 53 reveals the lost condition of the human soul and God’s desire for reconciliation. Perhaps you’re not so sure about God’s desire. What more excellent an offer than that His own Son should die for you, standing in your stead as payment for your sin? It pleased the Almighty to bruise Christ and put Him to grief, making His soul an offering for sin. On the cross, Jesus Christ saw you, who would be a son of God. Jesus saw all His seed who would receive the new birth by the Spirit of God to be heirs with Christ in the Kingdom of God.

God made Christ’s soul an offering for the torture of hell that your eternal soul was supposed to suffer. Though every sinner deserves hell, God gave His soul to suffer in agony so that your immortal soul, helpless in its sin-stained condition, might see the Glory of God in eternity. Jesus poured out His soul, receiving an inheritance of the eldest Son, firstborn from the dead, resurrected to new life. He defeated hell and set the captives free.

Yes, God wants to reconcile with you so that you might know Him, even be friends with Him in service of His domain; it would please Him. Imagine that; God being well pleased with saving your soul by a simple faith in the power of Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead.

The challenging part for those who are His is to resemble Christ. You, dear Christian brethren, are supposed to look just like Him, who sacrificed everything so that men could be remade and joined again in fellowship and harmony with God almighty.

You were made in God’s image, but the likeness is broken by sin. Even for those born again, sin remains and is a constant battle. However, the resemblance to God has been recreated (a new man), and your mind and heart should be refreshed, having been given the image of God again in the Spirit who created you. “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” – Colossians 3:10. The new man, having been made a new creation indwelled by the Spirit, should look and act like Christ, God in flesh.

What did Jesus do, teach, and prepare His disciples to do? Those are the specific things the followers of Christ are supposed to do even today, “But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” – Romans 8:11.

Don’t limit or reject the quickening of the Spirit, but trust God in all things doing the will of Him that loves you. What does a leader in Christ do? He declares to the believers that we are to emulate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). What is the similitude of Christ if not His people following His commandments because they love Him (John 14:15). The mirror is pointed right back at me, for none are perfect and all fall short. Still, brethren, “…press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14).

Jesus is the express image of the Father (Colossians 1:15, Hebrews 1:3). A disciple in any endeavor of human activity is supposed to be the likeness of his teacher; so much more the Christian, we are to be the picture of Christ who is the Master of all. But so many Christians today will need to be taught how to serve. John 14:9 is instructive, “Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”

Has the word of God been so long time with you, yet you haven’t seen Christ and how you are to serve? Reading the Scripture, filled with awe and wonder at Him, what are you going to do about that? Hide it away in a napkin buried in the ground? What are you afraid of (Matthew 25:25). We’re all naked before God, why care what people think of you, serve Christ! “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” – Luke 6:46

There is no outward beauty that we should desire Him. The truths He taught and commanded in the Holy Bible are where the magnificence of Christ resides because in His word is where a man must always find the revealed will of the Father. Do the people you spend time with, do they see Christ? Do they know Him through you?

If you want to understand the relationship between God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit better, always do the will of the Father, for that is as Christ did. It’s one reason why the Father sent the Holy Spirit in Christ’s name; to teach you all things and remind you what Christ has said. Without studying the Scripture, there is nothing about which to remind you! And without doing what the Holy Bible says a disciple of Christ must do: if you read it and don’t do it, it’s not real to you. You remain a theoretical Christian untrained by the Spirit and untested through the fire, having never walked by faith in the service of our Lord to see the blessings of the Dispensation of Grace. You’re missing the Kingdom into which you were reborn and are meant to be an active citizen.

What is an ambassador for King Jesus but one who represents Him in all things and beseeches the lost sinner to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). A consumer of Christianity who won’t be a bondservant of Christ in the New Covenant is a wicked and rebellious son.

What is the glory of Christ Jesus; the fullness of grace and truth (John 1:14). Be the fullness of grace and truth to bring glory to God.

“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.” – 2 Corinthians 4:10

This post is somewhat incoherent, being about three different random thoughts, but hopefully, it connects together, and somebody will benefit. Christ is the final authority in matters of the State, family, and Church, but this post is only loosely connected to those three domains.

“Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.” – 2 John 1:9

First, God is the final authority on Himself. Second, the Holy Bible is the final authority on all things about God; it’s God’s word. Third, God is also the final authority on you, the individual, and all that men do and say.

Most people have only minor problems with the first statement. Many have issues with the second, but this third drives men to anger, landing them finally in hell. God made everything, and it’s His.

God is holy. You are a sinner. You are made in God’s image.

These three things cannot be simultaneously true. If God is holy, perfect, sinless, and righteous, but we are sinners, how can we be made in His image? Something must have happened that changed or destroyed the original likeness that God created when He made man.

In Luke 5:1-11 Simon (Peter), James, and John, with him, are shown to be professional fishermen. They are experts in all things pertaining to fishing in those waters. For at least two generations, their families had fished that sea. Peter had fished all night to no effect proving the fish were not in that area. Jesus is a carpenter by trade and asks Peter to launch out into the deep and cast his net. In verse five, Peter answers, “Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless, at thy word I will let down the net.” – Luke 5:5. By faith in the word of God and trusting in His power alone, a great haul is taken up in the net.

Covenants

The word of God are His covenants with men and, indeed, all living things. You should seek to understand these covenants, especially the New Covenant; civilization and your very life hang in the balance of obedience to God by keeping the contract He made with man. Time and again, given as an example to us in the Holy Bible that we might learn to obey Him, men break covenant with Holy God, and a ruinous future proceeds to unfold.

Instruction

To be honest, I would have to say many sections of Scripture bother my conscience deeply, convicting me of God’s righteousness and my helplessness to stop sinning against Him. Sometimes this also happens when I listen to preaching. I don’t like it when that occurs, but it’s true, and I know I need to hear the point being made at that time. It’s my job and yours as adults to adjust to reality or suffer the consequences. It’s a matter of personal integrity before God Almighty.

The situation of Western Civilization, now a godless empire going astray, is not unusual, but adults rejecting reality is historically irregular and deeply problematic to our day. It’s what the judgment of God looks like; everybody is running blindly from the truth. It’s not only an adult’s job but a distinctive marker of human maturity, in general, to adjust to any reality, including the word of God, as set forth in the Holy Bible.

Society is rife with young adults and even middle-aged adults who reject the reality of how life is on earth; they renounce God’s created order and the state of man as violent, wicked, sinful creatures. I fear we’ve been handed over to darkness.

The situation has infected the churches. The young and old alike reject the word of God yet claim salvation. This is a problem of Christian maturity. In every instance, when shown what the Bible says and how they are commanded to serve Christ, they cite feelings, time, cost, or many other excuses to avoid doing the hard work of bringing in the Kingdom of God. A maturing Christian sets his feelings and dislikes aside, mortifying the flesh, and, by faith, follows Jesus through keeping the commanded instruction in the Holy Bible.

“And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”- 1 Samuel 15:22

Through salvation in Christ, the consequence of eternal damnation for sin is off your shoulders, but if somebody told you that being Christian was easy, I’m sorry, they lied. Crucifying self daily and following Christ to the cross is demanding. In your own strength and spirit, you don’t want to do it.

Maturity in Christ is not a function of physical age; it’s a matter of believing what God says in His word and acting upon that knowledge. A man may not reject His word and claim to be a disciple. God even puts His word above His own name.

And, in reality, we must question the faith of those who won’t pray, read their Bible, serve within the body, and witness to lost sinners; these four duties are the basis and foundation of the New Testament instruction in building the Kingdom of God which brings glory the Father through His Son Jesus Christ.

The maturity problem is so pervasive that the churches have stopped teaching that men are sinners. The people don’t want to hear it because they are whiney little babies with poopy diapers who would rather have a pacifier than coming off the milk onto the meat of the word of God so that they may grow thereby into Christian adulthood. They hate God’s word, and brothers, if you hate God’s word, you hate Him that wrote it! Loving Holy God means trusting His word over your understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

Witnessing

Romans 10:17 explains why we open our Bible and show the lost sinner what the Scriptures say.

“So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Because Christ has been given all power in heaven and in earth, we have the authority to make the kingdoms of the world His kingdoms, as soldiers of our King. In the operation of God in salvation, the Holy Spirit brings conviction as the lost sinner hears and understands God’s word; this builds their faith. As soul winners, we seek to determine if the lost sinner trusts God. Establishing the honesty of God and the integrity of His word is essential to faith and trust in God.

When witnessing, I ask lost sinners, rather starkly and out of the blue, is God a liar? And also ask them, is the Holy Bible true? (Alternately: is what I’m showing you in the Bible true, or do you believe what the Bible says to be true?)

The lost sinner must confess that what they are being shown in the Holy Bible is accurate and that God does not lie. There are verses of Scripture for both of these questions, but demanding to know what the lost sinner says of his own accord, belief by faith is being tested. If the lost sinner is under conviction, they will confess correctly. (This isn’t the only question we ask, and his salvation is with God alone, we are merely witnesses of the truth.)

If the lost sinner does not verbally confess and admit to the integrity of God, they do not believe in His authority as the judge of men or the authenticity of His word. Salvation is to those chosen in Him before the foundation of the world by faith in the atoning death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, plus and minus nothing.

If a man doesn’t believe the Holy Bible as God’s words, it’s not our job to convince them, and trying to do so may damage the seeds that God is planting and watering in their soul. They are not being saved if they don’t believe, trusting in God by faith. The conversation with the lost man is over if they, sadly, reject the integrity of God.

It may be a wonderfully interesting conversation among believers to discuss the source and authenticity of the Holy Bible, but here’s why I’m not a fan of apologetics as a manner to reach the lost. Weaving specific facts or illustrations into a conversation with a lost man is essential, but it’s not our job to convince people of the genuineness of the Bible. If a man wants to argue the authenticity of the Bible, an important question is whether they have read it.

Those under the influence of the Holy Spirit will seek by faith. A function of the Holy Spirit is to convince men of their sin and that the wrath of hell abides on them and of God’s salvation by grace. A lost man can’t understand the Bible. Convincing him of its historical origins can be a waste of time with a lost sinner when he needs faith.

Most men who argue against the Bible’s authenticity are really saying that they deny God, and if you press them on this, you’ll find it’s true. If somebody, whether they confess belief or not, doesn’t believe the Holy Bible is God’s word, we’re hard-pressed to see how they can be a Son of God. If somebody has read the Bible and doesn’t believe it, share some more Scripture with them, perhaps, or tell them to read the book John praying to God for understanding.

The Problem

God is holy. You are a sinner. You are made in God’s image. As stated at the top, these three things cannot simultaneously exist; how can the likeness of a perfect God be a sinner? Something is logically incorrect, or somehow one of these things became untrue.

“The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.” – Proverbs 20:7

The break happened in the Garden when Adam, given a mind and will of his own by the grace of God, sinned against his Creator. Subsequently, all men became cursed with death and sin for Adam’s disobedience to God’s covenant. Your sin will also affect not just you but your family, church, and nation for generations to come.

That’s what sin does; it destroys our connection in relationship to Holy God. When Adam sinned, he broke the image of God in himself, and when you sin against the Almighty, the person God wanted you to be is also damaged; and it’s too late; you’re a sinner.

Conclusion

God will restore this damage from sin to a far superior condition than Adam in the garden could ever have imagined. The day of the resurrection and judgment is coming. You must belong to Holy God through faith to be entirely remade into the likeness of His dear Son, Jesus Christ. If the Bible troubles your soul, this is an extraordinarily marvelous thing; praise God, for He seeks to speak with you.

Prior: God’s Church, Family, State

2 Samual 11:9-13

“But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and went not down to his house.” – 2 Samuel 11:9

God was manifest in the flesh, crucified for your sin, rising again from the tomb to offer salvation from sin and life, even life eternal, to all who believe by faith that He is and does what He says. We have a wonderful, loving, and caring God, full of grace and abundant in mercies. If that’s the message you need, stop here.

This post is a hard topic. If you want to avoid facing the reality of our current condition, skip this post. Evil is hard to stomach. Mature Christians must be able to confront the truth of evil in our day if we are to address how to fix it. The object at the outset is to arm you, not cause despair.

The destruction of the family is a blow to the heart of loyalty. The government neither deserves nor bothers any longer to garner commitment, and all its institutions wonder why it’s treated upon the scale from distrust to disdain and outright lawbreaking. The churches soft-peddle a New Religion, becoming full of wicked unrighteous men.

There’s no loyalty anymore. It used to be that a man could have one job, he would work hard, and a company would take care of him. He would have one wife, work diligently to provide for her, and raise his family and she would be loyal to him. The head of the family would have one law, the law of God taught by the Church of Jesus Christ, the foundation upon which civilization must function. But we’re not here to worship the good old days. This law scales up from the individual to the nation.

God is loyal to His own, demanding our loyalty to Him in return. God will never leave you nor forsake you, but what have we done? Loyalty is a component of human behavior and a man’s nature. Being social creatures made in God’s image, we have this same attribute and desire built into us. We have an innate longing to both garner loyalty and to be loyal. Fidelity is how an association of any size functions. But allegiance outside God’s law always leads to ruination in sin.

Though rarely expressed as such, at the core of many a lament today is a lack of loyalty, and rightly so; how can one be loyal to that which is unworthy of trust and respect? Commitment comes from faith that good men will do the right thing, particularly if difficult. All institutions today demand respect but have not functioned for decades in a manner that garners trust; they are deserving of none.

Some men are born having a personality that tends toward loyalty. This is a fantastic character trait, but when the churches, the State, and the family all fall apart, where can one turn? How shall we make a functioning society?

America is littered with millions of people coming to realize their loyalty to the State has been misplaced. This can be a dangerous circumstance as they’ll seek any leader they perceive to be strong enough to direct their cause. And a fraudulent apostate church reinterpreting Scripture to accept sin has led to the ruin of the churches and our country. It’s so bad that forced acceptance of pedophilia and child sacrifice, by law, is not far off. Don’t scoff at this; read your Holy Bible; America is no better than they were. Blind loyalty leads to genocide, and TPTB knows this. Men must be loyal first to God and His law.

Evil tests loyalty by requiring sin, which isn’t much of a test since all men are inherently sinners seeking the iniquity of this world. The darkness truly is the weaker and for the weak of spirit.

God tests loyalty through trials of faith and even tribulations. America is entering one such phase, where the true Church, those in Christ, is being tested. Are they vassals of the unscrupulous empire, or do we follow the Holy One? And God can allow all manner of evil to befall a Christian to draw them closer to Him. God demands loyalty, even obedience. Among the lessons one may find is that God will let you fail, ensuring you know that He is God and that men do not attain perfection. His will, in divine sovereignty, is accomplished in all things.

If you find men who seek to be loyal by nature, you should learn how to be worthy of their loyalty. This is a key component in team building and exists in family nurturing as well. But how can a leader know if somebody is loyal? Seeking a way to devise a test comes to mind, but we have no such formula for righteousness, only time together finding who is full of love one for another.

Some are more so than most by nature. They look for groups to which they can become loyal. It might be that people who appear to have their feelings hurt easily are faithful by nature, searching for reciprocation. They’re not soft or weak but have a remarkable character trait that needs to be recognized and fostered.

People are petty and don’t think long-term, but hard times are arriving. No team wants people that are hesitant to commit fully at that moment of critical decision. Always fostering a team attitude is leadership at its most basic. Don’t take advantage of the loyal.

A man should know himself and his own nature. If somebody is seeking to be loyal, they should be forgiving, accommodating, and patient in all things. Trust takes a long time for others to realize. Even relying solely upon what people say can be misleading; loyalty is found in the trenches of doing hard things together.

The loss of loyalty is a direct result of sin. If you’re a Bible-believing Christian, that’s not much of a revelation. In the case of corporations, commitment to money over people and products is the error. As to government, so too devotion to money and power over the security of the liberties bought in the blood of loyal men. Of the family, the lust of the flesh destroys the foremost fundamental requirement for a functioning society. When marriage is nothing more than a hookup that lasts a few years instead of one night, your society will soon fall.

In the Garden, holy God gave one law that man might not sin against Him. He created the first institution of civilization, the family, to live in peace and prosperity by obedience to His command. At the roots of the destruction of loyalty in America and the west is sin, the violation of God’s law, and His created order upon earth.

Uriah is a hero. We’ve heard much preaching about that section of Samuel but never on the loyalty of Uriah; perhaps the churches are not loyal to Christ our King. The modern churches teach and preach how David and Bathsheba sinned, but then how they moved passed their sin. The American churches teach adaptation to contemporary society with all its wicked sins instead of preaching and teaching how to build and maintain a culture based upon the moral laws of God Almighty. Teaching Christians how to adapt to the beast system instead of how to resist it is despicable; it destroys trust and respect and separates men from the loyalty to God they should always strive to maintain. That’s the foremost problem in American Churches today. When the church has no foundation of moral code, the destruction of the family and the State soon follows.

Few are loyal to a church nowadays. It’s a separate topic, but most Christians seek to find where they feel pleased instead of being challenged in their faith, growing and prospering in the faith of Jesus Christ. Entering into the finers pot (Proverbs 25:4) is hard, but purity before the throne must be above all else. On the tombstone of America will be written: they were comfortable.

Why would men be loyal to a church that condones divorce? In some instances, Jesus taught a more stringent law than the Old Testament, and divorce is one of those instances. See Matthew 19:7-9.

Uriah refused to leave his king (2 Samuel 11:11) until receiving new orders to return to his brothers in battle. That’s loyalty, both to the king and to his brothers. The well-being of his people was at stake because they were at war; this was loyalty to his family and clan. The first reason Uriah gave for not rejecting his moral duty by leaving the battle was that the Ark of God was down on the field; Uriah was devoted to his God. He was loyal to his Creator, the Lord of hosts, the God who is the right hand of the faithful warrior for good.

Government is merely a reflection of society. When men reject sin, flourishing families are established, and a just government is soon born, the structure of which matters much less than the morality of the component members. Loyalty is garnered because the government is loyal to the same law of God that the Church of Jesus Christ is, and the families adhere to it.

Matthew 19:27 – 20:16

“1 For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which went out early in the morning to hire labourers into his vineyard. 2 And when he had agreed with the labourers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 3 And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, 4 And said unto them; Go ye also into the vineyard, and whatsoever is right I will give you. And they went their way. 5 Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. 6 And about the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye here all the day idle? 7 They say unto him, Because no man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vineyard; and whatsoever is right, that shall ye receive.” – Matthew 20:1-7

In Mathew 20 verses 3-4, 5, and 6-7, the householder, who is God in the parable, went out and hired other servants throughout the day, making a covenant with each one for service and payment of a penny (KJV). The allegory for us today is simple and has but one central point; God is making bond-servants over time, at His will, by faith in Jesus Christ, to bear fruit in His name for the glory of God.

The implications, however, are critical for us, especially in this day of do nothing Christianity. The first implication is that He is making covenants with men to be His servants, having bound them to Him for work in His vineyard which is the Kingdom of Heaven, laboring continually until the twelfth hour when the day is done and that final evening comes when Christ will glorify the Father. He didn’t forgive your sin, save you from His wrath, seal you unto the day of redemption, indwell you with the Holy Spirit, and give you His instruction manual in the New Testament so that you could do nothing and still expect your due. “For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.” – 1 Timothy 5:18

That’s a two-way street, a double-edged covenant. We most often rely on God, for He is worthy, to keep His end of the agreement knowing that our rewards are in heaven with Him. But we have a testimony of our utility to Him in the Kingdom carrying out the given duties, being a laborer, bearing much fruit for Him knowing that indeed He is just to repay our works. Shall we do nothing for our King and expect a full day’s earnings?

And don’t miss the price Christ paid for you in sacrifice on the cross, beaten and bloodied to death for your sin. At that price, receiving salvation in eternity, what toil is too much for you to expend for our King?

But Jesus rose from the grave proving His power to put your hand to the plow, chosen in Him, that you might be perhaps the least of the laborers called in the eleventh hour, yet what tremendous blessing “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:9

The endcap to the parable is so beautifully fitting.

“16 So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” – Matthew 20:16

How great the liberty of the New Covenant, where service is a joy, telling of our great High Priest, laying down the seed of the word of God in the newly piqued interest of a soul to whom Mighty God is revealing himself. The work of the vineyard for our soon-returning householder is a full day’s labor for some but for others, an easy last hour yet receiving the day’s total wage.

The parable set before us is in answer to, or, the conclusion of Matthew 19:27-30. Jesus teaches the reward to His apostles because they had forsaken all to follow Him. In verse 30, Jesus states, “But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first.” – Matthew 19:30. Compare this verse with the conclusion of our parable, verse 20:16. These two verses are the bookends giving us the edges within which to seek the purpose of Christ’s teaching in this case.

There are various explanations for Matthew 19:30 and 20:16 and many ridiculous assertions outside of the simple setting of addressing His disciples. Some take these verses and make up a whole new theology, but context matters.

Parables have one central message. The more esoteric conclusions to the teachings of God come from those trying to ascribe more than is plainly meant to be taught by the immediate principle in the parable. Some make a dispensationalist distinction between Jews in the Old Covenant and those under the New Covenant when they read first and last. That’s a difficult stretch of the text’s meaning, but as we’ll see, one of the purposes of the Church of Jesus Christ is given.

The simplest explanation is taken in the context of Jesus answering Peter’s question as spokesman for the Apostles. Peter asks, in Matthew 19:27, “…what shall we have therefore?” Jesus states that they will be chiefest among the regenerate, judging the twelve tribes. The Apostles, though the last of those called under the law, will be first, chosen to rule even above the patriarchs and Noah, Moses, and David. That is what Jesus is teaching them in the moment.

It seems this is the central application of the parable; being the last of the line under the Old Covenant, the apostles would be first to bring thousands and thousands born again into the body of Christ in the earliest days to establish the New Covenant, ending the old. Being firstmost, they would serve in the harshness of stonings, beheadings, crucifixions, receiving many stripes, set upon, beaten, robbed, and having their property taken by civil authorities while losing family and friends as Christ came to set mother against daughter, son against father. And persecutions still arise at different eras in the farthest habitable reaches of the earth, as Christ builds His temple, those in who the Holy Spirit inhabits.

But (Matthew 19:29) they would also gain the family of God, Christ’s Church. Serving Christ will cost you something but look to what’s given. “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.” – Matthew 19:29. Don’t dismiss the blessings of an intact blood family in the New Covenant; that’s the exception, we think, to the rule.

But what of the Church?

“29 And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.” – Luke 13:29-30

As Christ brings in His Church, calling and choosing who He will, the parallel verses in Luke draw the best application for us today. We mustn’t dismiss how Luke records this first and last statement, for the vision is of the Church in the Kingdom of Heaven, as Jesus states in Matthew 20:1.

There is a particular thought toward pre-destination in verse 16 of Matthew 20, but that is not of the lost compared to the saved but that among the saved, some are first, not chronologically, but have been called and chosen to more service, working the whole 12 hours of the parable for their just reward, toiling in the heat all day. At the same time, some serve in a less productive role bearing less fruit. Some work continually, called to labor, at war in the world with the spirits of kingdoms seen and unseen, the Holy Spirit always bearing down upon us to produce ever more in the Kingdom of God to bring righteous glory to God the Father through Jesus Christ by planting, watering, and gathering fruit for the Master. “And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant” – Matthew 20:27. We must never begrudge those whose simple task is to grab low-hanging fruit, called and chosen into the Kingdom, yet they avoid the heat of the day. Their burden is quite simple in the few hours they serve.

And for us, in comfort and ease, are we not the last, the least of the disciples? Millions of Americans have never yet set foot in the vineyard; though Jesus touched their soul, birthing them anew, they are idle sheep being prepared for the coming slaughter.

Built to work, the first man tended the Garden. And today, men are to work in the vineyard of our husbandman. You’re just the person God wants! You’re the exact right one for the tasks of the harvest He has set before you. We see no day, heaven included, where men will not serve. You’re precisely who God has chosen to bring Him glory now and forever, even in the regeneration.

And what of holy God’s divine sovereignty?

You’ve been given a station in the Kingdom by order of the Lawgiver. Shall you question your position or pay, challenging He who created heaven and earth? No, you must glory in His design upon your life. The sovereignty of God overrules all things; laid down by His word before the creation of the worlds, He will keep and protect you ’till the appointed day of just compensation.

“Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” – Matthew 20:15

Not only were the works created for God’s delight that you might labor in them, bringing glory to His holy name, but your very soul was created for this exact purpose: His good pleasure to do with as He delights that the Christ of God might glorify the Father in you. In that final hour, your labor accomplished, and your penny due, coming into your regeneration, you shall receive his bounty according to your works. As agreeable as that sounds, no appointments are possible but that Christ sanctifies, blesses, and prospers it; the results and the workers, all creations of God, belong to Him.

Any such crown as you may perceive you will gladly, full of love for Him, thankfulness, and open frame, cast upon the ground at your Sovereign’s feet as all creation sings holy holy holy, for none are noble but the Lamb that was slain and resurrected having all authority to bring us, each one, into the new creation, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” – Revelation 4:11

Bluff: It doesn’t exist because men are sinners. We know your time is precious. This video is well worth your study.

Here’s a thumbnail of the video as I reviewed it: You must, and you will have a government; however authoritarian or individual, all groups have governing norms by which they operate to achieve common objectives. There are only two government forms; That given by God or one of the many that man has created. The great thing about God’s law-word and His Kingdom is it’s fully scalable from the individual to family, small business, church group, or team. And God’s law-word, as well taught in the video, is the best source to begin building an autonomous parallel trade and governance system, not only within your group but among otherwise separate Christian groups.

This is an important study for Christians and extends to those who don’t consider themselves Christians but already have mutually overlapping connections, agreements, and goals with Christ’s people. Watch the whole thing.

Here at TCJ, we’ve taught the principles Pastor Weaver outlines, but we refer to a national or American Christian perspective.

This article is good in that much of it is accurate. It’s refreshing to see that some ‘get it.’ These concerns are here in America too. One thing the article lacks, although implied in the problem, is concrete solutions, so they have been provided here at TCJ.

The problem has not been other religions converting those in the UK, but of the British leaving the Church out of a seeming lack of commitment. Most church leaders understand this dynamic, and many mainline denominational churches have attempted to liberalize and become more “relevant” to modern society. This liberalization has invariably meant moving away from previously accepted Church doctrine based on scripture. In doing so, these denominations have brought the opposite results of what they sought.

Note carefully that it’s not the congregation’s lack of commitment that is causing them to wander, but church leadership’s lack of commitment to correct doctrine in truth. Casual observers appear around the edges of a church, coming and going, but those in Christ Jesus are inherently attracted to sound teaching coupled with worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24), for God seeks such a people.

The Church is rather easy to define. It’s strange indeed that so many struggle with it. The Book of John is written to unbelievers so that they might be saved and come to know Christ. There’s no better place to look for the fundamental and elementary foundations of the Christian faith than Christ’s own words recorded by the disciple John.

“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:” – John 10:27

“If ye love me, keep my commandments.” – John 14:15

The Church are those who hear Christ and demonstrably love Him by the keeping of His word (following Him): seeking the lost and loving each other, which are the fruits of the Christian life, along with prayer drawing closer to God and faithful bible study that you might learn to teach the next generations of Him.

“Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” – John 15:8

“By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” – John 13:35

Real Christians are doers of the word of God, not idle observers of ceremony.

For those maturing in Christ, the teachings of Jesus in Matthew 7 are very helpful on this topic:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. 15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.” – Matthew 7:14-18

Jesus says it’s impossible for a good tree to bring forth evil fruit. Now, men make mistakes, but when confronted with the truth of fundamental Christian doctrine and faith, the evil will flee (or demand you leave), but the righteous shall stand forth in repentance restored by the truth, knowing their own faith in Jesus Christ will make them whole.

And, again, we’re warning of church incorporation, which is Cosmic Treason against God and a root of the problem, which tends toward bad leadership.

Back to the linked article:

American leaders need to pay attention, as the dynamic is playing out throughout Christianity in the West: As the percentage of Christians in the West has declined, Christian influence on society and culture has declined, and as a result, society has become more morally ambiguous. Families break apart or never form and children are left without moral guidance. The growing and scripturally faithful churches offer the anchor and moral clarity people seek at this time. Those attending scripturally faithful churches are not coddled with whimsically morphing values, as has happened in too many of the declining churches. Christians are exhorted to commit to counter-cultural “biblical” moral standards which don’t change.

In regaining biblical Christianity, the Church will grow and society will benefit from the salt and light the Church is called to provide.

The Church of Jesus Christ is for believers; it’s not a mixed multitude. Regaining biblical Christianity for a small group of believers either means tossing out unrepentant sinners, including false leaders, or standing up a new fundamental core group that can demand adherence to the teachings of Christ and the removal of sin from their midst. Keep in mind; the Church is not a building.

“…strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life…”

“17 Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him. 18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.” – Leviticus 19:17-18

We must rebuke our neighbors if they’re living in sin. But that’s not nice; what about loving your neighbor as yourself?

There is no contradiction; infected with coexistence and tolerance, the New Religion lies to millions of congregants across America. Perhaps they aren’t so much lying as lazy. It takes fortitude to tell somebody they are a sinner at odds with God bringing the rot of ruinous sin to civilization and eternal destruction upon themselves. Perhaps they are too scared to do the works of Christ; lying to themselves, they pretend to be spiritual while rejecting the Law-word of God.

Verse 17 states, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart.” Well, that sounds perfectly reasonable. But, the verse goes on to indicate that hate is manifest by allowing your neighbor, brother, or your people to remain ignorant of their sin, or worse, live in defiance of all that is right and good and holy before God. Permitting your neighbors, without rebuke, to live in open rebellion against God is an act of hate for them! Tolerance is not an act of love; it’s hate!

Matthew 22:39 is the most often cited instance about loving your neighbor. When a lawyer tempted Jesus by asking Him what the first and great commandment is, after explaining that the Love of God in obedience to Him is above all things; secondly, Christ refers to Leviticus 19:18.

Jesus, at every turn, loved His neighbor by telling them the complete and ugly truth, regardless of how that made them feel. That’s how a Christian is to love our neighbor. Woefully undertrained or purposefully misled Christians are confused when this is explained; the devil is subtle. Verse 17 contradicts all that the modern world teaches, but the Almighty is correct, and the purveyors of tolerance are wrong. God is not only love but truth; there can be no contradiction in His person, nor is there in His word. Telling the truth is love, fulfilling the royal law.

Would you not want to know the truth if you were living in sin, bringing destruction to your country, and headed to eternal damnation, ignorant of a solution? Somebody loved you enough, neighbor, to tell you that you were a hellbound sinner on the road to sure defeat. When they pointed this out to you, they fulfilled the Law in love and truth as Christ did, and so must you.

Verse 18 starts, “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.” Probably, the most immediate meaning is that the sons of Jacob were not to war (in any sense of the word) against each other and are being forbidden from holding generational grudges. Certainly, for us, we are to forgive family, and wider kin, having mercy on them, for we ourselves are but sinners. Regardless of what your people do to you by sinning against you, rebuke them of their sin, not counting their transgression against them. That, too, is how you love your neighbor as yourself.

Raising a family is nothing if not teaching right from wrong, truth from lies, and love from sin. Allowing children to be trained by the State under the tolerance of sin is hate for your own family.

No man can be responsible for another’s feelings; this would bring ruin to civilization, and it is. The truth is outlawed, and that’s the point of “tolerance;” the communist plan of destruction is to elevate the State as a god. Promoting perversion and wickedness of all types will bring demands for action, which the State will be all too happy to oblige, gathering total control. And many fools today seek this very power over themselves. The rise of a new intolerance is dooming the holders of the old religious order to extinction. The New Order will never tolerate Christianity.

In one section of Scripture centered around loving your neighbor, the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-22) went away sorrowful, for he loved this present world and his stuff more than eternal life with Christ. The young man didn’t want to take up his cross and follow Jesus. Our Lord didn’t pat him on the head, telling him that everything was ok and that he could live for himself and have eternal life some other way; no, our Lord let him go. It’ll cost you something to follow Jesus, but so few today are willing to allow even the slightest discomfort for the sake of the Gospel. Jesus was looking for disciples willing to die for Him, and still is, but are you prepared to die to self and live for Him?

Matthew 19:19, Matthew 22:39, Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, and James 2:8 are not teaching tolerance of sin. Jesus did not create some new understanding of the Law; He fulfilled the Law in love by telling the unvarnished truth. How people feel about the truth and how they act upon their new knowledge of the truth is entirely upon their own account. You should do it politely and kindly, caring for their eternal soul’s condition; those who follow Christ should rebuke the sinner with reality.

Loving your neighbor is about caring enough to tell them the truth for their benefit, civilization’s continuity, and their soul’s eternal station.

“If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well” – James 2:8

This tweet thread is making the rounds. Its points are good if narrow in scope.

What is meant by Christians that believe in a negative world? We think he means those who hold a positive view of the state of affairs in America are dull of spiritual senses. Well, they are, and perhaps not actually converted, either. Clueless Christians deny sin; perhaps that’s it? Denying sin is certainly a positive view though erroneous. Those don’t believe the Bible and their own eyes. The notion that men are generally good is an infection taking hold in Christianity: As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one!

We don’t disagree with the thread; we’ll broaden the historical spectrum, recalling God’s stated purposes and Goals lest we lose sight of the end.

America is not simultaneously supposed to be blessed by God and immune to judicial determinations and instruction in righteousness from God. That’s the God of the New Religion (positive world?), not the God of the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible teaches God’s great purposes in judgment, grace in salvation by His mercies, and for instruction in righteousness. This is not a menu from which America may choose one or another; none are immune to these workings of God.

We’re negative in the short run on America and Western Civilization, but that doesn’t change God’s plan. If only Christians understood that they are no longer citizens of this world but ambassadors for Christ to this foreign and hostile land. They see these words in their Bible but do they get it?

Before you think we’re promoting abandoning our obligations on earth, that’s not what the Holy Bible teaches; see yesterday’s post.

What are the larger view of God’s plan and our purpose in it?

Sin has consequences. The rapid decline of western civilization is directly correlated to the growth of rampant sin (degeneracy, perversion, abortion, war, sexual promiscuity, etc.), as the thread rightly points out. The catalog of corruption is not necessary to review. What’s essential is to call it what it is, Sin. That’s God’s word for it; that’s what it is.

What is the Holy Bible, if not a history of the onset of sin and God’s dealings with the wicked, but also by His mercies choosing a people He desires to live for Him in righteousness?

America finds itself on the waning side of the last significant growth era of faith in the Almighty. That previous growth era was the most extraordinary yet in size and depth of fundamental belief, for this God’s blessings rained down from the throne of heaven upon western civilization.

Don’t, brothers and sisters, lose sight of the fact that Christ had conquered three continents and significant areas of one other over the last 500 years or so. You’ve heard that weak men bring hard times. The Bible’s view is that those weak men are the leaders you get, perverters of all that is holy when the people reject God’s Law. But even that scope is too narrow.

Christ is conquering the world. That’s hard to see for us because of the narrow point of view of a single lifetime and the skewed antichrist perspective of the history books. Christianity has grown geometrically in 2000 years, from 122 souls in that upper room who awaited the promise of the Holy Spirit to millions and millions of professing people from the center of empires to the farthest reaches of distant and strange lands. This didn’t happen by accident.

As our Lord gave us in the Great Commission, the Christian project is a long road with ups and downs, perils and pitfalls, evil seducers and sorceries, and the raising and razing again of kings and kingdoms, religions, and whole ways of living. But God’s power prevails; souls are converted, entire courses of history are subsumed under the power of the Gospel, the Father is glorified in the work of His saints, and civilizations are birthed as the blessings of God are poured out upon a faithful people. The name of Jesus of Nazareth continues to spread, which also doesn’t happen by accident.

The point here is that sin has brought trouble from evil rulers to a dying civilization, so what? These are not our kingdoms; they belong to Christ to do with as He pleases. It doesn’t gladden God to have to destroy them any more than it satisfies us that He will. But it’s necessary; every knee will bow. We’re sure God would much rather men accept His word and do it without a fight, but we are sinners making ourselves the enemies of God.

Which leads to this point; How could God do anything but destroy a wicked and adulterous generation? (That adultery in the Bible is meant as cheating on God.) There are vestiges of European pagan roots left, antinomianism, and spiritualism not of the Spirit of God, but today our current form of adultery is self as god. Father God will have no partners, no equal; He will not compete for His throne. He destroys the inhabitants of His planet over and again to bring them to the knowledge of His Son, that through Christ, all peoples would hear and fear Him, the Just One, judge of heaven and earth.

Our day is not one to lament except that we be grieved deeply by the depravity of our fellow man, troubled of heart, for they will not (re)turn to God and be saved. But, have you asked them, you know, if they need to be forgiven of their sin and saved from hell? Maybe nobody told them how! Perhaps the whole problem today is Christians’ fault for not doing what Christ said to build His Kingdom. And so you see, neither does His Kingdom get built by accident.

But know, Christ is putting down all rule. His project is for as many thousands of years as the Father chooses, bringing the whole earth to heel. Rejoice that He cares enough to destroy your wicked civilization. Praise His holy name that the Lord God Almighty puts down sin with vengeance, for righteous is He, just and perfect, and will not tolerate the ways of wicked men forever. Be not deceived; there are things God hates!

You are here now. You should find out why. What is it that God is calling you in service to perform? Teach the next generation to call upon Him? Spreading the seed of the word of God that souls be converted, prepared of God to carry forth the next explosive growth phase of the Gospel after God, sadly, deals with the trash now rampant among us? Hard times breed hard men, but are you training them, above all else, to fear God and keep His commandments, preparing them for the way of Christ?

In the coming hard times, people will be looking for answers. God is that answer. Do you know how to explain clearly and purposefully what sin is, how saving self from hell is impossible, how all sinners without Christ will die being cast out into eternal hellfire, and only those belonging to God’s own Son will be saved? Can you explain the purposes of the cross to scared, cold, hungry men who need a Saviour? That’s the Christian project; that’s the generations of work, century after century, a long hard slog of doing the works Jesus commissioned when He created His Church, the body of Christ.

Having heard of Christ’s commission, do you even know your purpose and calling in the Kingdom of God? Will you pray? Will you read the entire New Testament, examining what you are supposed to do? Will you train yourself to carry on the works of God, the Holy Spirit in you, to bring glory to the Father through Jesus Christ?

Now in heaven, there are millions of the most productive and faithful saints of God that nobody has ever heard of who labored in obscurity, year after year, for decades of their life, that you might one day, in God’s providence, hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, repent, and find salvation. Are you up to this task? Thankless hard work, ridiculed, derided, a nobody, and very soon persecuted for the name of Jesus, can you do it?

The churches no longer teach the blessing of obedience and the curses of disobedience. The people don’t want to hear it. They have no fear of God, do you?

Christ has already won when He rose from the grave. The writing, as they say, is clearly on the wall. All power and authority in heaven and earth are given unto Christ. Death, hell, sin, and the devil who has tried to steal God’s throne are all defeated in the Kingdom of God that now reigns by the Spirit. But the day is coming of no more tears, no more sorrow, no more death when the Lamb of God shall have put down all authority by His own power, the kingdom of death and hell will be called forth and cast into the lake of burning brimstone for all eternity.

Those in Christ from all ages will be left, and the greatest King that ever was, with the utmost contrite act of humility, will turn and hand us all, with His Kingdom, up to the Father, that God may be all in all.

Having suffered the entire grieving process of anger, tears, and sorrow for America a decade ago, living for Christ should have been the first choice. But I had to see the ugliness of this world and the futility of its politics with the fragility of its kingdoms before getting it; Christ is King. His is an everlasting Kingdom.

Two thousand years ago, a new Kingdom was birthed; the Stone not cut by hands is growing into a mountain crushing all other power. Daniel’s vision is sure and true, coming to pass in the person of Jesus Christ.

“And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.” – Daniel 2:44

In today’s narrow scope, the war between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of death and hell is ugly and disturbing, but our King wins! Sometimes we think that evil is winning, only to find that God is withholding His blessings so that judgment might march across a land, destroying His enemies. This prepares the way for the next growth phase as the Gospel of Christ, by the Spirit of God, begins again to convert His people by the many millions, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.

The job of the Christian is not that of an observer of the machinations of evil during the death throws of empire: but to be doers of the word, telling the lost of salvation at the foot of the cross, teaching and training Christ’s disciples, carrying forth the good news of the resurrection, bringing to bear our coming victory in the Lord Jesus Christ, our King.