It is very troubling that Christians seem to be losing the ability to think critically. In a world where technology giants are easily directing our society into places we don’t want to go, many Christians seem like sheep willingly being led to the slaughter.
Recently, certain government administrators have made crystal clear their intentions to silence the Christian voice in this country. They have come right out and freely stated this in the press. Along with the overt threats to round up conservatives and re-educate them, there are the myriad of not-so-covert methods of fighting against Christian morality:
- Pushing the abortion agenda to its furthermost, most violent expression possible
- Destroying the definition of the traditional family unit as created by God
- Allowing pornography and filth over all social media outlets, while censoring and cancelling the accounts of those actively trying to spread a message of morality and truth
- Allowing blatant hypocrisy and lies from the left to be freely dispersed in news media and social media while squelching every viewpoint that does not match their own
I could go on and on. Most of you Heretics reading this already know all this is going on. But what really, honestly confuses me is that many Christians are marching in step with the lunacy. And perhaps the strangest part is this: for decades certain Christian voices have been warning of the day when society will blatantly and publicly turn against Christians in this country. Many Christians refused to believe it, thinking it could never happen here, not in the land that was founded on Christian principles and is ruled by the Constitution.
Many of us warned the public for years and years that once we start down the slippery slope of compromise, it is exceedingly difficult for a nation to get back on the straight and narrow. Outspoken Christians and prophets were ridiculed for being conspiracy theorists and therefore summarily dismissed.
This is not such a strange phenomenon in itself. Christians are often pretty dense when it comes to discerning the times. The really strange phenomenon is that when the liberals in government come out and, as already discussed, freely discuss rounding us up and re-educating us, many Christians will continue to be passive. Then they will be passively led to the gas chambers and will never understand how it all happened.
One of the greatest manifestations of this phenomenon in recent years is the whole never-Trump movement. Based on the man’s past behavior, he has been disqualified from public service by a vast number of Christians. This, my friends, is the pharisee spirit in action. I am extremely thankful that God does not use the same criteria, because we never would have heard from such bible heroes as David, Abraham, the Apostle Paul or many others.
I have posed this question to many friends over the years, and never once received so much as an attempt at an answer (because there is no good answer):
If God can choose someone like Saul (Paul), who was on his way to kill Christians, and about whom God declared “I have chosen you to take the gospel of Jesus to the Gentiles” before Saul had done any righteous deeds and when, in fact, he was on his way to destroy the newly blossoming church of Jesus,
AND
If God can choose an adulterer and murderer like King David, and call him a friend of God,
AND
If God can use Abraham, who not once but twice gave away his wife to a stranger because he was afraid for his own life,
AND
If God can use a murderer like Moses to not only be a powerful spiritual leader but also to write a big chunk of the Bible,
then why do you refuse to allow God to use someone like Donald Trump to do His work on the earth? Many Christians hold Trump to a higher standard of morality than our heroes in the Bible! In other words, a standard that no human can meet.
But many Christians will not even consider this question about God using broken vessels. They are far too deep into their own pharisaical viewpoint that makes behavior the only proper criteria for public service. Thank God He doesn’t do the same!
The real problem—and here is where we Dangerous Heretics pull back into our safety zone of the plain, real, honest truth of Scripture—is that too many Christians don’t understand much about the New Covenant.
When Jesus suffered and died in our place, He did so much more than just give us a guarantee of eternal life. The New Covenant we live under now in built upon two very important principles that undergird everything about life in Christ: first, He does indeed provide eternal life after we leave our mortal bodies, but second, and very crucial to our existence, He utterly destroyed the power that individual sinful actions have over us while we are still living on this earth.
The first part is the part of the New Covenant that all Christians enthusiastically agree on. Too much, in fact. They are so focused on just getting out of here, begging that the rapture will happen quickly because the world is heading for hell in a handbasket, that they have no interest in changing the culture here and now.
“But Jesus didn’t try to change the political climate in His day!” many argue. This argument is nonsensical. It’s nothing more than an excuse for inaction which is also called laziness or indifference.
First of all, the mission of Jesus was different than ours. His goal was to get the religious leaders so violently angry with Him that they would kill Him. He had to die and rise again from the grave to pay for the sins of the world. Our mission is not to die to pay for the sins of the world. Jesus made our mission crystal clear: preach the gospel, heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, love others as He loved us.
Second, the political climate in Jesus’ day was different. Jesus did not vote, so does that mean we should not vote? Of course not! There was no system of democratic voting back then. The specific reason He came when He did, I believe, is so that through His life He could make a radical statement about the difference between earthly kingdoms and His heavenly kingdom.
Everyone wanted the Messiah to save Israel from Roman rule and oppression. But that’s not why He came. He revealed the mystery that God had kept secret for thousands of years, namely, salvation by grace, and the ability of all nations, not just Israel, to partake in the family of God.
I believe that a very serious issue that has undermined not only the ability for the Christian Church in America to change the culture around her, but also paralyzes our ability to properly evangelize the culture, is this misunderstanding of what’s included in Christ’s atonement package, or the reconciliation of sinful man back to the heart of God.
We did a three-part series about this, and you can get that information here:
In short, Jesus Himself said that if you don’t believe His words, at least believe because of His miraculous works. Even Jesus, far superior in every way to us when it comes to debating, telling the truth, and arguing His point, needed miracle power to get the attention of the people. If we really believed and understood the amazing power and authority we have in Christ, and our obligation to not just “desire earnestly spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1) but to thrive in them, then things would change rather quickly. As one of my favorite Christian teachers said, instead of praying for revival, just raise someone from the dead, and you’ll have all the revival you can handle!
It is also crucial that we have a biblical understanding of our identity in Christ. What does it really mean to be a follower of Jesus? If we don’t have a good understanding of this, then we will never be as effective as we should be while still living on this earth.
Learn more about your true identity here:
We all know that now, perhaps more than any time in the past 200 years, is the time when Christians and all others who believe in biblical morality need to step up, be heard, and prevent the enemy from taking any more ground in the battle for souls.
What’s really bizarre is the tendency for liberal Christians to actively stand against things like the Seven Mountains Mandate (more about that here:
http://dangerousheretics.com/2021/01/30/seven-mountains-the-true-gospel/
while perpetuating the social gospel. The very same Christians who decry social activism on the Seven Mountains, disparagingly calling it “dominionism” (have you ever noticed that when Christians give something a label, it automatically means it’s wrong?) tend to be the same ones to perpetuate the social gospel, and are active in social groups decrying (rightfully so) social injustices like poverty and racism.
How, I would ask these liberal socially-engaged Christians, do you expect to change society while actively resisting the Seven Mountains Mandate, which is nothing more than a call for Christians to be involved in the areas of society that mold our social character?
Once again, many have lost the ability to think clearly. While decrying social activism on the Seven Mountains, they urge the church toward social activism. It makes no sense whatsoever. Social activism against poverty, for example, obviously includes personally supporting those in need, but to make sweeping reforms it also requires policy changes in the mountain of government and probably also the mountain of business. These changes will require people to be involved whose interests really are on the people in need, not on government or big business who are mostly only interested in furthering their own agendas of power and money.
When Christians react against the Seven Mountain Mandate, it’s either a complete misunderstanding of what it is actually all about, or it’s a knee-jerk reaction against labels or things they choose not to understand. Either way, it’s the inability to think. Tragic.
The Bible is clear: we are to be wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16). The ability to think critically was tantamount to the style and teaching of Jesus. He often did not directly answer questions, but he would simply move into a parable, or he would answer a question with a question. He was brilliant at always thinking two steps ahead of the crowd, and providing amazing answers to issues that revealed his shrewdness.
God is smart. Really, really, really smart. He wants us to be like Him. We are to be changed into the likeness of His Son Jesus, who was also really, really smart. Thinking is a big thing in the Godhead, which is why we are urged to pursue both wisdom and knowledge, and value them more than silver and gold (Proverbs 3:13-14). God has also given us the mind of Christ (1 Corinthinas 2:16) which means clear and critical thinking is big deal to Him.
Let us stop wasting our gray matter. We need to be like the sons of Issachar who understood the times (1 Chronicles 12:32) so we don’t waste our energy on fighting presidents that were put in place by God; and stop fighting the teaching of pure biblical truth in church; and begin believing what the Bible has to say about us, our power, our authority, and our mission on earth; and clear our vision so we can clearly see the spiritual battle that faces us as we step into a truly bizarre future (this was written in January 2021).
In other words, let’s do Romans 12:1-2 together:
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
The renewing of our minds is the part of salvation that falls to us. This is the stuff we work on, with the help of the Holy Spirit. Salvation and all the incredible gifts and fruits of the Spirit come from God, but our job is to keep working it out, obeying, studying, begin fruitful in our minds so that we can once again become the critical thinkers that can defeat the lies and hypocrisy of our enemy. Never have we been in more need of developing the skill of critical thinking.