Never Mind the Nazis, Dear (or, Clueless Christians Complicit with Evil)

When Peter – even well-intentioned – said something that was utterly opposed to the will of God, Jesus did not smile or wink at him, nor did he say “Let’s just agree to disagree”. No, he rebuked him in the strongest possible terms. The episode is found in Matthew 16:21-23:

From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”

hitler 2Jesus rebuked Peter, calling him Satan! That is how bad the words and ideas of Peter were. While plenty of evangellyfish today would censure Jesus for being so unloving and un-Christlike, Jesus of course was 100% correct. Whenever the will of Satan and not the will of God is being promoted, it must be resisted in the strongest possible manner.

And regrettably, often some of the most diabolical and utterly inane things are said by Christians. Indeed, they can even quote Scripture as they are doing so. They have such a warped view of biblical Christianity, and are so full of useless and mindless clichés that when they speak, it is as if they are speaking on behalf of the devil. Yes it gets that bad at times.

A perfect example of this occurred today on another site. I and others were discussing the utterly horrific and demonic activities going on in Planned Parenthood, with the harvesting and selling of baby parts for profit. I wrote that story up earlier today: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2015/07/15/planned-parenthoods-deadly-baby-trade/

I have shared much about this story in the past few hours. And I am still astonished at the fact that most Christians would not know about this, or worse yet, would not give a rip about this. We are so dead in our apathy and indifference that even something like this will hardly stir any believers out of their slumber.

There is a flood of evil happening in the world, yet most Western Christians are completely asleep at the wheel. One person asked me how such evil could be happening. I replied: ‘Let me tell you why: All this is happening because “Christians” are allowing this to happen. They are too busy having their “best life now”.’ So a Christian gal – even if well-meaning – came along and offered this set of unhelpful clichés:

All this is happening because God is allowing it to happen. All things come from the throne of God. God rules and nothing happens that He does not allow to happen. Our job as Christians is to pray and to express God in everything we do. Remember Job. God allowed Satan to take everything away from him and even caused him to have boils all over his body. But in the end when Job learned his lesson, the Lord gave him back all that he lost and more. Genesis 50:20 Satan means everything for evil, but God means it for good.

I told her that she should not confuse the proper biblical teaching on the sovereignty of God with a fatalistic complicity with evil. We are always to fight that which is evil. Yet she went on with more flowery fluff and sweet nothings:

Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His lovely face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace. Hebrews 12:2…Looking away unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.
The Lord tells us to be peace makers, to build up the Church, To forgive others, to love as He loved us. To go the extra mile, to turn the other cheek, to love sinners, (not their sin). To be meek, to be humble, to be holy, to be perfect, to love our brothers and sisters, to overlook an offense, to die to the self, to pick up our cross, to follow Him. The entire Bible is the love relationship between God and man. He is not interested in what the world is doing. Let the dead bury their own dead. The Lord is building His Church, so He can return. All the things that are going on in the world are just the fulfillment of prophesy. The Lord tells us when you see these things happening look up for your redemption draws nigh. I am a lover and follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, I choose to spend my time and energy with those who call upon the Lord out of a pure heart, and who have been called into the fellow ship of the Son. If I spend all my time trying to fight against the evil that is going on in the world I would have no time for the Lord.

Wow, one can only surmise that the only exposure to Christianity she has had is something like the humanistic New Age mush and feel-good moralism of a Joel Osteen. She could never have gotten this sort of jumbled thinking from reading all of Scripture carefully and intelligently.

Just how utterly unhelpful and unbiblical was that response? Not only do we have more of the content-less and humanistic “lurve” talk, but she actually believes we should have nothing to do with what is happening in the world. Does she know nothing about the command of Christ to love our neighbours as ourselves?

She is evidently so busy “loving” Jesus that she has no time for actually being a real Christian in a real world to real people. “Babies being slaughtered and sold for their parts? What does that matter to me? I am far too busy loving on Jesus!” This despite the fact that we are commanded to rescue those being led to the slaughter (Proverbs 24:11) and rescue those who are appointed to destruction (Proverbs 31:8).

And this baloney about “it is all just the fulfilment of prophecy” is one of the lousiest and most anti-Christian copouts around. That and a dodgy understanding of God’s sovereignty. If a gang of rapists were brutally attacking her child, would she just glibly say that God is in control and all this was predicted long ago? If so, she is simply a fool, in biblical parlance.

And she makes the ridiculous claim that she cannot fight evil because she is too busy being with Jesus, whatever that means. Um, guess what? We are to do both, simultaneously. It is never a case of either-or, but both-and. Scripture tells us for example to “cling to that which is good and hate that which is evil” (Romans 12:9).

We are always to fight for righteousness while resisting evil. This gal is regrettably a major part of the problem here. Her lousy view would have allowed the murder of the Jews to continue under the Nazis. She would likely have condemned Wilberforce as he rightly fought the evil slave trade. Her useless fatalism and pietism is simply a cloak for her indifference to evil and her hardness of heart.

Sorry, but the opposite to love is not hate but indifference. Her utter indifference and disregard for the evil that is happening all around her tells us a lot about her and her “Christianity”. She can pretend all she likes she is too busy with Jesus, but in reality she is simply too busy with herself.

Sorry lady, but mixing truth with error, thereby causing more harm than good, is in fact to do the devil’s work. Remember, Satan was terrific at quoting Scripture when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Simply throwing a few verses around, out of context, and used in a way to suppress or challenge other clear biblical truths is never doing God’s work – it is doing the enemy’s work.

If this woman claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ, yet can have such a cavalier and heartless attitude about something like the sale of baby parts for profit, then I have to question her Christianity. The genuine Christian grieves over what God grieves over. He hates what God hates and loves what God loves.

But to make brainless excuses for horrendous and diabolical evil – even spruced up with Christianese and mushy clichés – is not to speak on behalf of God or to reflect his heart to a needy world. The only fitting response to such utter rubbish would be the response of Jesus: “Get behind me, Satan!”

[1460 words]

10 Replies to “Never Mind the Nazis, Dear (or, Clueless Christians Complicit with Evil)”

  1. “How could this be happening”? Answer: “Christians are letting it happen”!

    Answer: Henceforth, all Christians to seek out any Christian Candidate that has Christian Values and principles and avoid the alternatives.
    Our Goal, to amend the Constitution adding section 116 A to provide:
    Christian Values and principles to receive the widest possible protection; to advance those values and principles and discourage any alternatives

  2. This gal needs to ponder two verses in Micah & Matthew
    Micah 6:8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
    Jesus reinforced this statement when rebuking the pharisees in Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
    As God’s people we are commanded to put our beliefs into action and not to spout religious cliches.

  3. So well said Bill. You know I continue to read your every write-up but rarely comment but had to with this.
    I have recently had conversations with a few young women and I have to hold myself firm to not cry or shout or scream at them. The latest comment which would be a facepalm if it werent so terrible is that she doesnt read the bible because ‘well I guess our generation doesnt really do that’ and this girl has been in church all her life!
    Its horrific the state of the church and the state of the leadership. Thank you for continuing to do God’s work no matter how hard some days can be. God Bless you Bill

  4. Maybe she doesn’t know that “when you do it to the least of these” you do it to Jesus! The two are inseparable.

  5. Dear Bill,

    Thank you for the article.There are some very strange ideas circulating amongst some young people especially those in our secular society who were never baptised or brought up in a Christian household and who you could say have only fairly recently ‘discovered’ that the Bible and Christianity exist. The young woman you mention might be such a person.

    It has been my experience to have encountered several young people over the last two or three years who now suffer from various degrees of mental illness caused by drug use. Churchgoing, the Bible and Christianity played absolutely no part in their lives at all whilst growing up. Then they were introduced to Christianity and the Bible possibly by their so called self taught friends or acquaintances and because their lives are at a very low ebb they undertake a voyage of discovery about Christianity.However, they lack perseverance and understanding about the Gospel message due to their diminished mental state. They can be capable of quoting large chunks of Bible passages from memory and show an unnatural interest and knowledge about Bible films without any real understanding of what they are supposed to teach us and how it should change our lives.Their new found religious fervour often does not match the way they continue to live their lives. They sometimes continue to fornicate, have abortions and smoke pot. They sometimes have no work ethic to speak of not even to do volunteer work in charity shops and they can be lazy and unhygienic.

    Personally I think these sort of ‘conversions’ are not really conversions but more of an escape from the tragic reality of their lives which often include unemployment, poverty, homelessness, aimlessness, alienation from their families and a sense of worthlessness.This is to say nothing about the cravings, delusions and depression that the drug use has led to even though they might be trying desperately to stop taking them.

    Sadly, these so called ‘conversions’ do not always last because if they did God’s Grace might continue to work in their lives and change them for the better. The novelty of their new found ‘faith’ wears off for some more quickly than others. Some find Christian chastity and the work ethic too demanding. The expectations they have about their fellow Christians if their so called ‘çonversion’ has led to church going are often unrealistic which leads them to feel more disappointment and hurt. They have been known to say that prayer and worship does nothing for them. That they don’t ‘feel’ anything as if praying to God should make them as high as a kite. Little do they realise that great saints like Pope John Paul 2 underwent great suffering all his life and Mother Teresa of Calcutta told people of the spiritual dryness she experienced all her life.

    In short their ‘faith’ is only a flash in the pan and fails to grow and when faith doesn’t continue to grow it dies.

  6. Dear Bill,
    I am so gobsmacked that this girl had the nerve to say that “After Job had learned his lesson”. Learned his lesson – really?
    Learned his lesson – has she got the same bible as mine? Has hers got all of the stuff about how God will not be mocked or his wrath or even just the context in which these scriptures that she so cleverly quoted blacked out in her version.
    Thank you Bill for all your tireless work, you are indeed a beacon in this world, and I would proudly stand beside you as a Christian Warrior for however long the fight is until the Shofar Horn sounds.

  7. Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. Minister Bill, In all the heartless, and murderess people, you will find an evil present in them. This evil is called the devil. the father of lies, the thief, and the murderer. Any time, one sees injustice, of any kind, one should take up the fight. For one to just stay neutral is to stand with the devil anyway. Jesus said, I will spit you out, or some say vomit you out of my mouth. None the less, Jesus, does not want His people to be cold or warm, but He desires us to be HOT. God bless and keep you my brethren, kind regards Ross.

  8. The Day of the Lord will come for sure to bring an end of all demonic powers in this world. The enemies of righteousness will face the Messiah, Yeshua Himself – the Judge of all mankind before the great white throne. At the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Thanks Bill for being The Lord’s faithful watchman to educate, teach, correct, inspire, and warn God’s people the danger we are facing to prepare for the Great Day of Christ’s coming to judge the living and the dead. Come Lord Jesus!

  9. Wow!
    Ya know i went through a period where i actually felt as though the Lord had made it clear in 1 sam chapter 8 that to vote for an earthly king was wicked and i challenged others to read it and see what the Lords heart was on the matter. It won me no fans, and i still believe i voted for 1 king and that is king jesus and my convictions are unchanged. But… You are so right that what hurts the Lord should hurt us also if we truly belong to him and i am horrified by this latest revelation where planned parenthood is now selling body parts! but i am not at all surprised, because i know the roots of the organization. Great point about the cliches and scriptures being taken out of context, its all too common nowadays as a heavily watered down gospel is being taught. We need to pray for this gal, for our nation, for the justice of these babies and for the righteous judge to open eyes of any who may have participated blindly. It is as much an atrocity that todays christians are in ignorance of the full gospel as it is babies being slaughtered and sold, and i dare say an almost identical scenario in the spiritual sense.

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