Jude 3-4 "Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt compelled to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to God’s holy people. For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord."
Ray Rooney of the American Family Association continued in his article on the current Culture War being fought. God’s people know that though God created all people on earth, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Galatians 5:17 explains the root of the culture war, “For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other.” The Apostle Paul warns in 2 Corinthians 6:14, “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?”
You may have heard of someone converting to Christianity, but what is this conversion of the soul? It is defined as: To change or turn; as, to convert pagans to Christianity. To turn from a bad life to a good one; to change the heart and moral character, from enmity to God and from vicious habits, to love of God and to a holy life. Acts 3:19 says, Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.
James 5:20 states, He that converts a sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death. In a stricter sense, one who is turned from sin to holiness. In a theological or moral sense, a change of heart, or dispositions, in which the enmity of the heart to God and His law and the obstinacy of the will are subdued, and are succeeded by supreme love to God and His moral government, and a reformation of life. The one who believes, repents, accepts and receives the Light of Christ – the Blessed Redeemer, then the Holy Spirits transforms from the inside out, consecrates and sanctifies in holiness and righteousness. But, many choose to reject this gift of God by grace through faith - the Light of Salvation.
In Matthew 7:13-14 the Lord Jesus illustrates this by saying, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. Merciful God provided the gate to salvation and eternal life in Jesus Christ. In John 3:16-20, Jesus explains the path to life that God provides and offers, but also the chooses people make, proclaiming: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. This is the natural man.
Ephesians 2:1-3 confirms, You were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you walked according to the course of this [fallen, sinful, God-rejecting] world, according to the prince of the power of the air [the devil], the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. We know that that there is an almighty Creator God, and that not everyone is going to Heaven by choice.
Rooney’s point is that we “don’t leave it up to the godless to legislate what is right. There is no equality or inclusion for sin within holy righteousness [purity of heart and rectitude of life; conformity of heart and life to the divine law of God]. Those who walk in darkness and are hellbound on the wide road to destruction do not tell the saved disciple of Christ on the straight and narrow way to life what is right or wrong. God defines what is right and God’s Word is truth, so in “One Nation Under God”, where “In God We Trust”, we tell them what is right. We work for the kingdom of God, serve the Lord and take orders from His holy Word, Will and Way, endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Social stability is found nowhere else.
Rooney concludes that we know ever since the fall of man, redemption, salvation, forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration of mankind was God’s plan. Ultimately, only our decisive actions validate our beliefs. The world is broke, so fix it. The Lord Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission to seek and save the lost [making disciples] by bringing them the Gospel message. Do something about your concerns for how the world is going to hell in a hand-basket other than complaining that no one is doing something about it. Do what is right. How much different would this nation and the world look if we, who call ourselves Christians, would just do what we know we should be doing and not wait to be told to do it? Obey God.
In Christ, Brian
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