When you think about it, God has a way of getting his truth out, even if he has to use those other than his own people to do so. The sad truth is, those who are called by his name who should be speaking out boldly on his behalf often are not doing so.
We have far too many cowards and spineless wonders who will never speak out about God even if a golden opportunity is handed to them. They will talk all day long about football or some stupid game or what they had for dinner, but will never open their mouth to share their faith, or to speak biblical truth in the public arena.
Not only is this an appalling show of cravenness, but it is also something we all should fear greatly. When we don’t speak up when given the chance, we are effectively denying our Lord. Jesus was quite clear about all this. Consider just two of his severe warnings:
Matthew 10:32-33 – Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.
Mark 8:38 – If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.
Yet daily so many believers are guilty of doing this very thing. We often have golden opportunities to share our faith or speak up about some hot topic of the day from a biblical viewpoint, but do we avail ourselves of them? Or do we just wimp out?
I recall one noted politician and believer many years ago being interviewed on the radio. They discussed his ill wife and how she pulled through in the end. The secular hosts thought it was all rather miraculous. The politician certainly could have agreed, but only managed to say something about how the doctors did a good job.
What an incredible opportunity to give glory to God in a most natural and friendly situation, yet this guy refused to even go there. And how many of us also squander such great chances to easily share about our faith and about all the good things he has done for us.
As I said, God will not leave himself without a witness (see Acts 14:17). If his own people do not speak up, he will find another way. Just think about Balaam’s ass for example (Numbers 22). And Jesus even said that if his own followers would not speak out, then the very stones would cry out (Luke 19:40).
And today we have many non-Christians who often talk much more sense and are much more clued up about things than are many believers. One thinks of columnists such as Andrew Bolt in Melbourne or Brendan O’Neil in London. The former is at least an agnostic who often out-guns Christians on key issues, while the latter is an atheist and Marxist, yet does tremendous pieces critiquing the homosexual juggernaut and so on.
Many other non-Christians could be cited here, but let me finish with just one more. American Jewish Rabbi Daniel Lapin has been terrific not just in the culture wars, but in standing up for Christians – when Christians themselves are so often asleep at the wheel.
His 1998 volume, America’s Real War, was a superb look at the moral, cultural and spiritual battles taking place, and an impassioned plea for people of faith to get their act together and start responding to the many challenges they face. He demonstrated how the inroads of militant secularism have to be strongly resisted by those holding to the Judeo-Christian worldview.
He speaks to these truths in many places, but in an article first penned back in 2007, he again turns to this theme with great flair and gusto. The piece is called, “A rabbi’s warning to U.S. Christians.” And it is certainly a very important and powerful warning. He begins this way:
I am certainly not a Churchill. I am not even a Revel. I am having enough trouble just trying to be a Lapin. But I am issuing a very serious warning about deep consequences, just as they did. It is a warning about the earliest stages of what could become a cataract of disasters if not resisted now.
During the 1930s, Winston Churchill desperately tried to persuade the English people and their government to see that Hitler meant to end their way of life. The British ignored Churchill, which gave Hitler nearly 10 years to build up his military forces. It wasn’t until Hitler actually drew blood that the British realized they had a war on their hands. It turned out to be a far longer and more destructive war than it needed to be had Churchill’s early warning been heeded.
In 1983, a brave French writer, Jean-Francois Revel, wrote a book called How Democracies Perish. In this remarkable volume, he described how communism’s aim is world conquest. For decades he had been trying to warn of communism’s very real threat. Yet in January 1982, a high State Department official said: “We Americans are not solving problems, we are the problem.” (Some things never change.) A good portion of the planet fell to communism, which brought misery and death to millions because we failed to recognize in time that others meant to harm us.
And he concludes this way:
Tyranny comes when citizens are seduced into trading freedom for the promise of safety and security.
Considerably more intellectual energy is being pumped into the propaganda campaign against Christianity than was ever delivered to the anti-smoking or anti-drunk-driving campaigns. Fervent zealots of secularism are flinging themselves into this anti-Christian war with enormous fanaticism.
If they succeed, Christianity will be driven underground, and its benign influence on the character of America will be lost. In its place we shall see a sinister secularism that menaces Bible believers of all faiths. Once the voice of the Bible has been silenced, the war on Western Civilization can begin and we shall see a long night of barbarism descend on the West.
Without a vibrant and vital Christianity, America is doomed, and without America, the West is doomed.
Which is why I, an Orthodox Jewish rabbi, devoted to Jewish survival, the Torah and Israel am so terrified of American Christianity caving in.
Many of us Jews are ready to stand with you. But you must lead. You must replace your timidity with nerve and your diffidence with daring and determination. You are under attack. Now is the time to resist it.
Wow, powerful words. And so true. Why aren’t Christians speaking these truths? Why do non-Christians so often have to say what needs to be said? I urge you to read his entire piece. Then I urge you to start speaking out about those things that matter.
Away with our reprehensible cowardliness. We need some stout-hearted men who will stand and speak. Will you be one of them?
http://catholiceducation.org/articles/persecution/pch0135.htm
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