DRAWING NEAR – PART 15

WHY IS THERE A FAMINE OF TRUTH?

Within our conversation lately about truth, some may think that I am being narrow-minded and that my stand for absolute truth is a sign that reveals a lack of love. I am not going to try and defend my level of agape love because to be honest I could definitely be filled with more charity. Nonetheless, I believe those who refuse to compromise God’s Word actually have a better comprehension of love than those who are convinced that we can believe whatever feels good is acceptable to the Lord. It is much easier to not be devoted to Jesus and just open a champagne bottle to celebrate how that everyone is OK and that God’s mercy will respect and endorse whatever is presented to Him than to become serious with our faith. Why? Because; the more serious we become about God – the more of our SIN will be exposed. Feeling good in our flesh is NOT why we are here! And doing whatever we want is NOT God’s idea of abundant life. Since taking up our cross and following Jesus demands that we forsake our fleshly desires and decisions, we can KNOW that the philosophies of men have nothing to do with the will of God.

The responsibility to Christ and reverence for what He requires fades away when heresy is embraced and this is exactly what we are facing in our world today. Compromise declares that even if individuals are blatantly wrong that God will overlook their idol worship and welcome them into His heaven as perfectly righteous. With this in mind, it is clear to see why today’s thinkers are convinced that it does not matter what anyone believes. However, this is NOT true! It matters greatly what and whom we put our trust in. Even though our religious world looks more like a Baskin and Robbins Ice cream shop, this does not mean that one flavor is the same as another. The concept of universal salvation (or ultimate reconciliation) is not a new idea but has been around a long time and is just a fantasy that attempts to take the responsibility away from seeking God and His truth. The reality of this nightmare is that it has already led multitudes into the gates of eternal separation from God. The evil insult to our Creator is to cast aside the great price that Jesus paid to redeem the lost and declare that man did not need this blood filled sacrifice to save their souls. This is blasphemy unto the holiness, mercy and compassion of a loving Savior that offers complete forgiveness and eternal salvation. If our Father accepted everyone no matter what they did or believed, the gift of the New Testament Blood Covenant would be reduced to an option which is why we must stand strong without wavering to declare that faith in Jesus Christ dying and resurrecting is the ONLY “approved” way to heaven.

We all agree that God is LOVE as first John chapter 4 clearly explains. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God. He that does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.” (Verses 7-11) We notice the statement, “that we might live through HIM” as the core of this beautiful passage because God’s love is the ONLY way we can truly love someone else. Since He is truth and has given us His gospel because He loves us, we must in turn give the world His truth because we truly love them. Selah. It is the same principal that is used when disciplining a child. He disciplines us because He loves us and we discipline them because of our great love for them! Sparing the rod proves how much we do NOT love them. Preaching and living God’s truth is our witness and testimony of how much we care about those who desperately need Jesus. To compromise truth so that others can be happy in their error is to be afraid and ashamed of God and to be cold and calloused toward those who live in a “lost” condition. So we realize there is a famine of truth as a consequence of a lack of love! We can clearly see that love is dissolving which is causing many to doubt that God is absolute truth. “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because sin shall abound, the love of many will wax cold” (Matthew 24:11-12). Truth and love go hand in hand and we know there is a serious problem with both. Those who care enough to stand for the truth are the pure in heart and shall see God.

There are many repercussions to this epidemic and one is the increasing daily stress for leaders to stand for truth and not compromise. Yes, we will disagree with small issues and not see eye to eye with everyone but when love decreases so does humility and patience. Many of the older generation are falling away and the younger ones have not been taught or experienced God’s presence. There is rising up an army of young thinkers that have accepted many lies that are contrary to the Bible and now they simply do not trust the traditional message. Slowly but surely truth has been challenged and chiseled away until the rebellious masses of opposition are being aggressive toward the fundamentals of the faith. Years ago, when an individual would come against the Bible, they could be reasoned with or would just leave but now the numbers are too massive to ignore. Two generations (Y and Z) are very determined to deliver the world from what they call “ignorance.” Many of these young leaders are not going to listen to anyone that declares the Word of God as the ultimate absolute truth for mankind because they have a new interpretation about most everything including fierce arguments against such topics as Jesus being the ONLY way to be saved and how truth is relative to whatever a person believes and many more religious, political and liberal social issues. So, the question remains; how many of us will “fold” under this pressure to change in order to maintain financial stability for the ministry? Pastors are not dumb or blind when it comes to dollars and sense, and they realize that in order to have a paycheck at the end of the week, they need to have members. An evangelist called me the other day from Ohio, and was upset because he said the churches in his area are allowing sin to take over the assemblies and no one has the courage to stand against it. When the majority of the congregation accepts the leaven, what can a pastor do? Continue to preach until everyone leaves…or leave himself? I would rather fellowship with a small group that is seeking God’s face than a multitude that is playing a religious game. The enemy hates the truth of God’s Word and is doing everything he can to bring a famine! It would seem that the Christians could recognize this but their failure to comprehend reveals how distant they are from the Holy Spirit.