PAstor Kennedy continues that the third term beside relativity and tolerance is the one that we are all familiar with— discrimination. What shall we say about discrimination? Let me ask a question. Is discrimination bad or good? Today, in the modern understanding of the word, things are changing. Actually, discrimination may be either good or bad. Discrimination simply means to distinguish between several things, especially to distinguish between things that are similar.
The fact of the matter is found in the definition of “acumen,” which means mental clarity and intelligence—to be able to nicely discriminate between several things, including wrong from right. But you see, though racial discrimination has long been understood to be wrong, there are few people, I suppose, in this country today that would try to maintain that it is good. We have seen gender discrimination outlawed and condemned—even age discrimination. But you see, again a word has been taken and smeared into areas for which it never was intended.
One of the commissioners said in my hearing that “we just will not allow discrimination of any sort to go on in this city. It is intolerable. We will not tolerate any discrimination about anything.” One of the members of the School Board said in the newspaper that “in our schools we will have zero tolerance for discrimination of any kind.” Hogwash! Those statements are not true. They do have discrimination. Will the school board knowingly hire a pedophile? I certainly doubt it. Will they knowingly hire a serial killer? No, they will discriminate against those people. Will they knowingly hire one of the leaders of the neo-Nazi party? Not on your life! Would they hire an activist Ku Klux Klansman to teach social studies in the high school? Never! We must discriminate against all of those people. So, it is a lie when they say they will have no discrimination whatsoever.
The truth is, the only people they really want to discriminate against and rule out are Christians and God. We are the people they want to get rid of. They will tolerate anything but those who have beliefs in dogma and absolutism of God. Who said that? The United Nations’ Declaration on Tolerance. They will tolerate anything. But you see, Christianity is an absolute religion. God is the ultimate absolute. His Word is absolute truth. His Son is the absolute divine Savior, so Christianity is an absolute religion, and its dogma or teachings, as the word means, are absolutely true. So, who is it that the United Nations is turning their guns on when they say they will not allow dogmatism or absolutism that is intolerable to the UN? Dear friends, if you don’t know it, those guns are pointed at you!
1 Kings 3:9 “Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?”
Discrimination is bad in cases such as racial and gender discrimination. But now they want to move into everything—to good and evil. You will notice in the text above Solomon prayed that God would grant to him an understanding heart to discern between good and bad. The word “discriminate” comes from the root discernere. That is from the root cernere, which means to discern. Therefore, the word “discern” is the word from which discriminate comes, and they both mean virtually the same thing. So, Solomon is praying that God would give him an understanding heart and the ability to discriminate between good and evil. If Solomon had prayed that prayer publicly today, the ACLU would be all over him, for discrimination cannot be allowed. Furthermore, God said that He was very pleased with what Solomon prayed. He answered his prayer so that Solomon is known 3,000 years later as the wisest man that ever lived. So, God is guilty, according to the neo-postmodernists of our time and their views on zero tolerance for any kind of discrimination. Folks, we, too, need to pray that God would give us an understanding heart and the ability to discern between good and bad, between good and evil.
Discrimination is the difference between a garden and a jungle, plain and simple. Discrimination is the difference between music and noise. Let me say this: the difference between barbarism and civilization is discrimination. It is vital that we are able to discern between the bad and the good. But notice that it is the bad and the good—not the black and the white, the old and the young, the male or the female. The ability to discern between good and evil and to choose the good is what makes civilization. When that ability is lost or pounded into the mud, as is being done daily in our schools, eventually a society will degenerate back into the jungle. That is what is going on in our country today.
But, thank God, some positive things are happening. Praise God that He alone brings us the absolute truth. Christianity is growing in spite of the continued attack. It has been said that in ancient centuries the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church. In the midst of incredible persecution in the past half century, the Church has grown faster than ever. The Church is growing today at the fastest rate in 2,000 years, with approximately 200,000 converts to Christ every day. That is of great encouragement to me, and I am sure it is to you.
Also, the Church, as far as the number of people who give evidence of truly being born of the Spirit in this country, has grown in the past few decades from about 23 to 30 percent, to 35 to 40 to 43, to 47 percent; I believe that is very encouraging. By the way, those were 1999s figures. I haven’t heard figures for the past year. So, I believe these forces of godlessness and unbelief and immorality that are forcing all of these changes upon the American people and are totally alien to historic Americanism are in for a big shock.
Pastor Kennedy proclaims: It’s time for Christians to get out of the bleachers and onto the fields. Christians need to get involved or laws may be passed that will have consequences that are going to come back to roost right in your family and in your home. All kinds of pressures to pass those laws are being put upon us all of the time. It has historically been held for 4,000 years that a virtuous citizen is a person who believes in God, a person who believes in morality, a person who disbelieves in immorality and ungodliness, a person who lives a life of virtue and morality and does his best to maintain these values in the society in which he lives. But no longer! The “virtuous citizen” today is tolerant and objects to intolerance! It has been well said that the last virtue of a degenerating population is tolerance. When people no longer live up to any of the moral values that made society great, the last value they hang onto is tolerance. They demand that everybody tolerate their wickedness, and they will tolerate theirs—the last value of a degenerate society. Well, things are going to change. Let’s make it happen.
In Christ, Brian
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