AMERICAN APOCALYPSE TWO
In Part One, we looked at scripture to see the meaning and requirements to fulfill the Four Horsemen of Christianity. The first horseman is salvation, and it consists of a gift that costs us nothing, but does place us under an obligation. That obligation is to follow the teaching of Christ and to show our obedience through the things we do in life. We'll move on to the other horsemen--Faith, Hope and Charity, paying special attention to Charity, whose meaning should
not be confused with alms. The original Greek carried the meaning of Love. Charity (alms) without love is creating a major problem for many people, including Christians. We'll get to that in due time. Now on to the second horseman--Faith.
In religious terminology, faith means many things including belief, confidence, persuasion, dogma and trust. What sickens me emotionally is the casual way I hear the word used to indicate the speaker is a pious person. We should never accept a declaration of faith for religious belief until we examine that person's history. Like salvation, faith has the requirement that the person stands for the teaching of the four gospels. It wouldn't hurt to also look at the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5,6 and 7). Faith requires certain personal qualities; among them are the combination of not making a false witness (the 9th Commandment) and giving respect where civility and Christian decency is due. Christ taught us to value truth and to diligently seek truth. That is not being done today, as many Christians accept and enlarge upon rumors. Our news media contributes to this mess, and, for the most part, is unreliable. There is no control or bias by either political party. The people in the media seem to only be interested in sensational stories or digging up suspected dirt about prominent individuals.
It is the responsibility of editors to clean up reporters' messes, but editorial content is often controlled by advertiser's opinion or the owner of the publication. There isn't much effort to learn the truth or verify information. It's become so bad, you can tell an outrageous story with virtually no truth and be unchallenged. This has been particularly true during the summer's political campaign. When any individual makes a false claim, he/she is breaking the ninth
Commandment : "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." Telling a lie is bad enough, but when the intent is to vilify someone for your personal edification, you are willfully acting contrary to Christ's directions. Going along with this is the total lack of respect for other people. Christ teaches us to respect all people, and if you understand His Sermon on the Mount, you understand how to treat others. I learned a long time ago that every person, no matter how poor or uneducated, could "educate" me in some way. Respect doesn't cost you anything materially, and Christ showed His respect for individuals through acceptance and compassion. Today, there is wicked slander and virtually no respect. When I taught in the public school system many years ago, I was astounded with the lack of respect the students had for other people, including teachers. It is much worse now, and adults are showing children they don't
have to respect anyone. There is no excuse for any Christian to accept or promote the lack of respect. When someone says they have faith, but then goes on to ridicule someone because it is "their opinion (judgment)" of that person, their credibility is lost.
Some theologians describe faith as the hope for results unseen and the answer to future needs and goals. Faith should not infringe on Hope, which is a much different animal. Faith should represent your positive belief in Christ's Christian principles and be absolute. There should be no "maybes." Faith requires your mind to lock in to the full meaning of belief. We are warned about the lack of faith in Matt. 17:20. Christ told the disciples faith as slight as a grain of
mustard seed will move mountains. That is why healing and other miracles do happen. It is not easy to have this depth of faith because we are impatient, and we have become spoiled to expect things to happen immediately if not sooner.
Faith is a vital quality for citizens of any country. This is not exclusive of non Christians. People of other faiths and no faiths contribute to every nation. The faith of Christians alone probably will not be enough to continue America's role nationally and internationally. You learn in the Old Testament that God eventually has to step in and change the direction of His people. He always preserves a remnant, and uses the true believers to rebuild earth. This may not always be a comfortable remnant, if you see what role Daniel fulfilled. You should note he was emasculated and made a slave. Because he had Faith, God used him as a teacher, and he was able to not only have a productive life, but cause the ruler of the world to understand that the God of Israel was the supreme being.
If you have faith, you will not be concerned about who the worldly or national leaders are. God is always in control, and He chooses who will be the leaders. He permits bad leaders as well as good ones. God does expect our religious leaders to carefully perform their duties. They must have faith to follow His teaching in the four gospels. It is not enough to preach or administer according to Christ's directions. Having youth programs, inspiring music, dramas
and missionary programs is part of a church's responsibility. These good works are second fiddle to the teaching of the gospels and the preservation of Christ's Word. Church leaders and pastors have a continuing obligation to know what's going on in the community and nation. When there are major issues, especially affecting the church and personal freedom, these leaders are duty-bound to speak up. When they do, they need to be accurate and truthful.
At present they are mostly neither.
I don't rely on congregational support, so I am free to speak out and call the game as I see it. There has been much church activity concerning sexual issues. This has been brought to a front burner by politicians to stir up voters, and church leaders have dutifully followed along. It's not that these issues are unimportant, but the most serious issues are ignored. Wouldn't you, as a christian, be very concerned if our national law canceled entire parts of scripture? I heard whimpers when some corporations or groups forbade the traditional "merry Christmas" greeting. Only whimpers, mind you. Then I discovered the Supreme Court, dominated by conservatives, Christians, made Citizens United the law of the land. This ruling makes any corporation a person and gives them Constitutional privileges. The ruling also refutes the basic Christian scripture in Genesis 1:26-27 where God creates man in His likeness; John 1:1, where the Word (scripture) IS God, and much of the four gospels where millions of people saw and heard Christ. This makes these judges who approved this law heretics, guilty of heresy. This means they deliberately violated scripture, rejected the above verses, and further violated additional scripture in Revelation 22:18-19. If you are unfamiliar with these last two verses, they declare anyone who adds to or takes away any of the bible will face God, who will "take
away that person's part from the Book of Life."
If you don't oppose Citizens United, you give passive approval, which means you are placing your eternal life in jeopardy. A person of Christian FAITH is bound by accepting Christ's offer to defend the Faith. This ruling is a sin, and your sin may be forgiven, but only if you repent. I have mentioned this ruling to many church people, including pastors, and none have shown any interest in pursuing a remedy. In fact, pastors don't bother to tell congregations about it. How do you think God will look at you if you idly sit by and accept these judges' ruling that any corporation looks like God, but His only begotten Son doesn't resemble God's likeness? And, just wait until people of other faiths realize the opening this ruling gives them to
bring their organizational (corporate) desires to become legal. For example, how would you feel if people of the Islamic faith took advantage of the ruling, and had all the vast Arab money from oil to use in political campaigns? When you violate God's very basic teaching, you can expect dire consequences. Americans, are you listening?
There is a concerted effort by some politicians to place Christian rules above the Constitution. Considering the ignorance of Citizens United, it would seem such people are just plain ignorant. The two measures are exact opposites. I would hope you spend some serious
time in research before you throw your vote away. Pastors are not supposed to be political, but many churches have become openly part of campaigns, and there is much confusion about the issues and what some politicians stand for. As a Christian, or any other Faith, you are obligated as an American citizen to cast an honest vote that supports Christ and scripture. Don't be misled by hot button issues that evoke emotion. This is a vital time in America's future, and failure to separate fiction from fact WILL affect our future and the end time.
People with real Christian faith should acknowledge God's rules and sovereignty. That means we recognize God is always in full control--ALWAYS! We know Christ taught freedom, not slavery. Yet, we've already had a bloody civil war and American slaves were not freed until almost 100 years after the Constitution was ratified. Lincoln, the president who oversaw the Civil War, was assassinated. Although elected as a Republican, he was not the
man party leaders wanted. People in states that supported slavery withdrew from the Union in an effort to impose unChristian will upon all Americans.
Things haven't changed much, because there is still a vicious racial divide. Don't think so? You should hear the comments from many people in the former slave states and other states that joined the union after the Civil War. The hatred that flows from these people, including some Christians, is difficult to believe nearly 150 years after that war. I was astounded to learn from a group at a dinner gathering nearly 20 years ago about a "solution" for the slave
problem. Apparently this division of races will continue until God puts a final stop to it...AND He will. The solution was to put all the Negroes on farms. They would all be farmers, and supposedly would provide our food and fiber. The proposal didn't include information as to ownership of land or share cropping, or regulations to control voting. I didn't want to hear more because I didn't think the idea or anything like it would survive. There is still a concerted effort to take away freedoms from other than the white race. We began this nation, not by freeing ourselves from England, but by cheating or taking away the land from Native Americans.
Faith is a quality that white people get mixed up between God's directives and our personal ego and self confidence. I've heard a group of preachers pray before a joint service, and then attended the service. They were preaching their program of church, which was not very scriptural at all. Oh, they used some scripture, but it was taken out of context. It was really nothing Christ would likely have said. The congregation never questioned a word, and for the most part it was a service that only pushed the faith of leaders with personal agendas.
You show your Faith when you follow through on Christ's teaching in the gospels and honor all individuals of other races and faiths with dignity and respect. Of course that doesn't mean we have to accept the radicals and terrorists, especially when they use mental and physical means to destroy us and our Faith. The most accurate measure of our faith is shown not by rambling profession, but by our actions. Are we demonstrating our obligation for the gift of salvation we accepted? Next installment is the third horseman, Hope.
Rev. Walbear
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