CULTURE of HATE

                                                   CULTURE of HATE

    "He who loves his life will lose it , and he who hates his life in this 
world will keep it for eternal life."(Matt. 12:25) This is a difficult verse
to understand unless you carefully examine and understand verses
24 and 26. It is, however, the simple and complete truth of the Christian Way. Verse 24 tells us, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain." The grain of wheat is the seed of life, just as Jesus is the seed of eternal life. Verse 26 explains, "If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, My servant will be also. If anyone serves me, him My Father will honor." Christ is explaining the requirement of dying to self to gain eternal life through His sacrifice. Read the passages again, and outline the word HATE, because it has everything to do with a Christian.

    To summarize, if you are enjoying and comfortable with life in this world, you will lose this wonderful condition when you enter the afterlife. If your ego and pride (self righteousness) die through your acceptance of salvation, heavenly fruit results from your Christian attitude and works. The ways of the world are wicked and evil; if you hate this, you will keep your eternal life in heaven. Now circle all three of these verses, because they will tell you your future. You're not going to eternal life with God and Christ if you harbor hate. You may dislike something or someone, but your actions better not be hate. Christianity is basically the New Testament, and speaks of love. The word HATE appears 38 times in scripture, and is
never used by Christ against anyone or anything. The word LOVE
appears 132 times in scripture.

     The most damaging passages of hate in the bible are in the Old
Testament in the Books of Proverbs and Psalms. Note that all of these hate verses were written by a variety of people, and none can be attributed to Christ, who wasn't even on earth yet. Following or using any of these hate verses in the name of Christianity is totally wrong, because they do not reflect any of Christ's teaching. I see many politicians and some church leaders and pastors using these Old Testament quotes to further personal agendas. Each Christian is responsible for personal actions. If you follow anyone without examining specific claims or projects, you are on the clock for your decisions.

     The pulpit or public soapbox is the means of spreading the truth,
especially for Christianity, its many denominations, and other  religions. Preachers are now widely and frequently using the opportunity to spread hatred. A Baptist preacher, giving a high school commencement address, actually ranted and raved hatred against gays and lesbians. He didn't dislike them...he said he hated them and wanted them dead. He is not even saved, because he violated the scripture he's supposed to teach. This man and millions of other Americans are loudly spreading all types of
hatred against others who are not exact clones of the haters. 
Unfortunately, the conservative churches are right out front, with professing Christians loudly proclaiming naked hatred against brothers and sisters in Christ.

    Except, there appear to be a substantial number of professing 
Christians who really aren't saved. They are loudly proclaiming their brands of hatred, apparently not realizing they are also  testifying against Jesus Christ and God, who gave us the rules of Christianity. That means they are proclaiming the lifestyle of Satan. Let's take a look at some other words of Christ about hate. He was very clear in warning that your place in Christianity would not be accepted in Satan's world. I trust you remember that Satan does walk the earth and has control, except for the limits imposed by God. Job 1:6,7 tells us Satan was walking back and forth on the earth. He's still here, folks, and he has even more workers 
looking for you. He has specialists in greed, race, lies and all the popular sins. If you harbor hatred, it's not too late, but you'd better not delay repenting.  It must come from the heart.

    If a saved person is spreading hate, it doesn't mean salvation is lost, but it does mean salvation is in doubt. If you've read anything about heavenly expectations, you should realize there is no hatred of any kind in the heavenly dimension. Hatred is a sin that may be forgiven. The mercy of God to forgive us is apparent from His  patience, but there is a limit. We are warned about this in Romans 6:1, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" Verse 2 explains, "Certainly not! How shall we who  died to sin live any longer in it?" John the Baptist took the message of repentance to the people of his day, and that is the exact cure for your sin. If you harbor hatred, you must have a mind change to
receive forgiveness.

    Hatred is a conquering sin. It cannot be eliminated without the help of the Holy Spirit. A saved person has that help available, but without repentance, the Holy Spirit will not be able to bring you out of damnation. Greed is driven by the sin of envy. Hatred is a much easier sin to infect people because it may be based on any number of things that strike a person's fancy. There's always that attitude of wanting to be better than others. It may be clothes, house, car, community or church position, or anything deemed important enough to make you feel superior. Christ used small things such as the widow's mite (Mark 12:41-44) to emphasize true value of material and spiritual subjects.

    The irrational action of people who base hatred on race and/or religion speaks for itself. Not only is spirituality missing, but also common sense. Which is worse...fraud (cheating), adultery, murder, envy, gossip (false testimony), or any other sin? They all have the  same value of evil except denial of the Holy Spirit. Why do some people spew hatred on a PERCEIVED sin, while ignoring more  common transgressions? There are two reasons: emotions stirred up by misinformation, and an attempt to divide groups of people. These preachers of Satan know most people are continually guilty of sins such as gossip and envy. Talking this down will not bring many converts, even from the church. However, there are much smaller  numbers of people who don't fit mainstream guidelines, such as race, religion, sexual orientation and abortion. People guilty of these sins
become the scapegoats for the general public, spurred on by some
church leaders who are anti-Christian. People are being misled by the
values of Satan put forth eloquently by wolves in sheeps' clothing. I
use the word eloquently only because people are so easily fooled.

    There are bad things caused by people of all races and religions. Christ did not DISCRIMINATE. He brought people of many races into The Way, and healed all who actually believed. Some disciples, including Paul, did discriminate against women, but you need to study history and culture to understand why. There is no reason today to continue this discrimination, or any other discrimination. This is a form of mild hatred, which illustrates how easy it is for Satan to lead would be Christians away from God. Don't lose your place in the Book of Life by preaching Satan's sermons. Your hatred is a direct denial of Jesus Christ and Christianity. There is no hatred in heaven and eternal life. 

Rev. Walbear