Afflictions - Slain
II Timothy 1:8
7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.
Revelation 6:9-10
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
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My question is: Did they suffer affliction and, for some, eventual death on account of their national patriotism?
Think about it. I would venture to dare say the answer to that question is No.
Why did Paul end up in jail? Why were those in Revelation slain? I don’t think it had anything to do with their level of patriotic commitment. In fact, I’m not too sure they had a government overseeing them that they felt any particular patriotic attachment to. We on the other hand have been uniquely blessed by God to be a part of these United States of America.
With that said, our nation didn’t necessarily get off to a perfect start. It was established by imperfect men and women. They weren’t all born-again believers. Nor were they all in align with the totality of Scripture. However, their lives, beliefs and practices were, and are, a far cry from what passes presently for leadership and citizenship.
These days we find our country standing on the precipice of an overall rejection of God, His Word, and His practices — perhaps more so than at any other time. I cringe to think about where we’re heading …?
But, I want to take this in a slightly different direction and emphasis.
Those who claim to be Bible believers know that things will get increasingly worse instead of better. Yet somehow, we think and hope we won’t be around when it really gets, you know, really bad — End Times Bad type bad. We choose rather to live under an acquired self-delusion that somehow God is going to enter and right the wrongs because, after all, we’re America.
Part of the fallacy of that accepted logic lies at the feet of the modern day slop that passes for preaching. We’re instructed/taught to believe that God wants us to be happy, wealthy and … all with minimum discomfort. This infused mindset is in both the “Christian” and “Messianic/Hebraic Roots” worlds.
We’ve all been preached into a nice warm Jacuzzi and we don’t want to get out. Right now, we’re all content to remain fat, dumb and very happy. We enjoy our present religious affiliations. We flock to hear our teacher/preachers whose troughs we’ve been so willingly feeding from and yielding our allegiances to.
Let me make a bold prediction.
There is going to come a time (and a lot sooner than we want to think) when God’s people will realize they been sold the proverbial “bill of goods” by us preachers that haven’t been bold enough and loving enough to “preach the whole counsel of God.” That’s not being harsh. That’s being truthful.
As the times get increasingly worse (and Biblically they must) the average pew-sitter is going to wake up to the alarming fact that they are ill equipped to engage in the type of spiritual warfare that is going to be unleashed.
Believers living closer and closer to the end will quite possibly face the reality of jail and even death. And not just in other parts of the world, but in our Country as well. If that sounds extreme, maybe we need to take off the filters though which we’ve been sifting the Scriptures.
This might come as a shock to you but … American Westernized Christianity is not in alignment with an honest assessment of what the Bible says. We’ve come to equate God’s blessings with that which is primarily good and mostly not bad. God is supposed to be our Magic Eraser. All we have to do is just call upon Him a few times and He’ll arrive quickly to fix things so we can continue on with our wonderfully undisturbed lives.
But that doesn’t really jibe with the Bible, does it?
However, you might be thinking …
“But we’re AMERICA. God is on our side. God can’t turn His face away from us. God won’t abandon us. We’re … AMERICA.”
Well, yes and … no.
God has never unequivocally aligned Himself with anything except His Word. He’s made that very clear from the earliest chapters in His Word. And, it will remain that way until the very end. God doesn’t change in order to be relevant to His creation. He sent His Son to change us, not the other way around.
God is God. He remains true to Himself and His Word. Anybody, individual or nation, that transgresses His Word necessitates His response. It doesn’t matter who. God is an equal opportunity God to all … saved or unsaved, American or non-American. His justice truly is blind. He doesn’t look upon every new situation and adapt. He will, however, seek to intercede. He will endeavor to call people and nations to Himself. He will truly be long suffering. But as we know, He doesn’t suffer long indefinitely.
Wherein lies any hope for us in light of the fact that the end will come? Answer: It lies in direct proportion to our willingness to search His Word and submissively yield to it. That is the only hope we have to hold back the just judgment that is coming upon us as a Nation, and indeed upon all nations. If we don’t, with some modicum of truthful humility and repentance, turn to Him … we’re all but done for.
Don’t expect big sweeping Revival to happen either. But if it does happen to any degree, it’s going to have to be a Biblical Revival.
What do I mean by that?
We usually think of Revival in terms of lost sinners coming to Christ for Salvation. That’s because that’s how it has been presented to us.
But it appears to me that when the Bible illustrates a Revival, it encompasses a lot of His own people returning to His ways. When that happens, the natural byproduct is a spillover into the surrounding lost world. And as that happens, the hand of God works repentance leading to true salvation.
For all that to happen, God’s people have to see themselves in need of getting right with God themselves. And truthfully, I don’t see that happening. God’s people are pretty well convinced they’re in fine shape. The Laodicean Church in Revelation did too until God told them differently.
What was their need?
I’ll close with that portion of Scripture from Revelation 3. See if you can find what God wants His people to do. It’s a five letter word with two vowels.
14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. ———
Lukewarm won’t land you in jail or get you killed, that’s true.
But … in the final analysis, is that who we really want to be?
Perhaps we need more of that five letter word with the two vowels?