"For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." 2 Timothy 4:3For weeks now I've been carrying around a heavy heart, disappointed that President Obama publicly acknowledged his support for legalizing gay marriage. In doing so, Obama pointed to his Christian beliefs - specifically, the golden rule. His statement was cringe worthy, not because I didn't know where the president stood on this issue - that was obvious - but because he chose to invoke the name of the Lord on a subject so expressly opposed in Scripture. My reaction was felt by plenty of other evangelical Christians, but I was heartbroken by responses from those who profess Christ in support of the same.
Last weekend a gracious friend had several ladies over for dinner to meet her college mentor, a retired campus pastor who was passing through Louisville on a road trip. I'm so grateful I went because he spoke to the very thing that's been weighing on me, posing the question of whether our country was on a path parallel to Israel's in the time of the prophet Jeremiah. The consensus was "yes," and that's not a good thing.
It's easy to see why Jeremiah is often referred to as "the weeping prophet," as he was charged with a tough assignment: Warn Israel that if its people don't repent from worshiping worthless idols - even sacrificing their children to them - God would bring destruction to their land. What's worse is that the Lord told Jeremiah from the outset that his words would fall on deaf ears. Jeremiah acknowledged the inevitable, saying, "Their ears are closed so they cannot hear. The word of the Lord is offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it." (Jeremiah 6:10)
Wow, that sounds painfully familiar! It gets worse. It wasn't just average citizens who were worshiping other gods; their leaders, priests and prophets were complicit, if not participating right alongside them.
Verses 13-15 continues:
"From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. 'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when I punish them," says the Lord.
Prophets were spreading lies and priests were ruling by their own authority (meaning they were no longer consulting the Lord) and the people were eating it up, according to Jeremiah 5:30-31. And much of this was going on in the temple!
"They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. They set up their abominable idols in the house that bears my name and defiled it." (Jeremiah 32:33-34)
In the end, Israel doesn't listen and is conquered by Babylon, its people carried off into captivity.
This was Jeremiah's home. His people. How heartbreaking would it be to know everything and everyone you've grown to love were about to be destroyed, yet no one would take your warnings seriously? Unfortunately, some followers of Jesus Christ are seeing that happen here in the United States, which is rapidly becoming a culture opposed to God.
In the last few decades we've attempted to remove any mention of the God of the Bible from the public square so as to not to offend or influence those who don't believe in Him. So much for the great commission, huh? We allow the killing of the unborn, complete with heartbeats and brain waves, and laud it as a byproduct of women's liberation. We shame people for believing God's account of any number of details of life, including how it began, reducing such debates to name-calling. Our government seeks to force religious institutions to pay for their employees to receive birth control and abortifacient drugs, even though doing so would violate their beliefs. And heaven help you if you recognize homosexual behavior as a sin. You'll find people in all sectors, from the government to some churches, swearing the Bible is, at best, antiquated or, at worst, just plain wrong. The rest of our people are so biblically illiterate they can scarcely make an argument at all.
Call anything a sin in this society and you'll be labeled a bigot, a hate-monger, ignorant and backward. They'll question your I.Q. and breeding. They'll chalk it up to the state you live in (that one's usually lobbed at southerners). All of this is sophomoric, mean and frustrating, but it's a far cry from persecution. Believing brothers and sisters die every year for their faith in countries closed to the Gospel. Many have to meet in underground churches, unless of course they want to attend the state-run versions in which messages are screened for their content. They're beaten and tortured for the sake of Christ.
When I consider what believers have to endure elsewhere, I'd gladly take the insults. But I know it won't end there. I believe this country will see a day when pastors will be jailed for preaching certain biblical messages, and congregants will cave under the pressure. Believers will lose their jobs because they refuse to act against biblical principles. Many already have. Families will be divided, emotionally if not physically.
But it begins here and now. The following are a few examples of comments I've heard from professed believers in the last couple of weeks:
* We all pick and choose what to follow from the Bible.
People with this mindset typically point to Levitical laws regarding cleanliness and ceremonial matters, such as warnings not to eat pork or wear clothing of mixed fibers. What they overlook is that ceremonial laws had specific applications to the Jewish people to separate them from surrounding cultures; moral laws are a reflection of God's heart and are universal. What also is in play is a larger misunderstanding of the purpose of the law. Romans 3:19-21 tell us that the law was written to make us conscious of our sin. Why? God is holy - He cannot be in the presence of sin. Anyone who has attempted to keep every law written in Scripture will tell you that it cannot be done, and that's the whole point. Our sin had to be put on Jesus, who died in our place so that followers of Him could even approach God. Apart from Christ, we have eternal separation from God. Without the law, we don't recognize that we need Him.
* Jesus nullified Old Testament law when He was crucified and resurrected.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:17 that He came not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Look at how Jesus addressed sin in general. One example is the woman caught in adultery, found in John 8. While religious leaders were ready to execute her by stoning, Jesus told her He was not going to condemn her to death but admonished her to leave her life of sin. While he treated the woman with compassion - as He continues to do by saving us from our own sentence to hell - He didn't even imply that her sin was permissible. Jesus never minced words when it came to sin; He offers Himself on the cross as our substitute in paying for it.
* Jesus never addressed homosexuality. Why should we give weight to the Apostle Paul's condemnation of it?
To echo an argument made by retired Southeast minister Bob Russell, the recorded words of Jesus didn't say a lot of things directly that we still regard as morally wrong - rape, for example. Again, to disregard the Old Testament admonitions in favor of only the recorded words of Christ in the New Testament is to disregard one of God's attributes - He is unchangeable (See Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29, Psalm 55:19 and James 1:17). If God so vehemently condemned a behavior in the Old Testament, what makes you think Jesus (who also is God) would regard it any differently? That's as much as calling God a liar. Finally, 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Those words, of course, were penned by Paul, so take them for what they're worth. In my estimation, they're worth a great deal.
* Today's culture is very different from biblical society, therefore Scripture no longer speaks to our circumstances.
King Solomon was right when he said in Ecclesiastes, "there is nothing new under the sun." People have been killing one another, sleeping with partners of the same sex, committing adultery, etc. since the beginning of time. What's different about our culture today is that its all readily observed. Its televised, on YouTube, streaming over our smart phones and discussed openly. Again, God is unchangeable - the same yesterday, today and forever.
So as I read the book of Jeremiah, I acknowledge that while God's Word is misunderstood, if not put aside as irrelevant, it is still my duty as a watchman to study it, stand firm in it and to warn the people what is ahead if they refuse to heed them. And repentance is key, according to Jeremiah 7:5-11:
"If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.
"But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my name, and say, 'We are safe' - safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching!' declares the Lord.
