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August 10, 2016

Christian Responsibility in Light of the Calls for Assassination

By Anthony Wade

It is time for Christians to walk away from someone who is damaging their witness for the Gospel.

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So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. -- Colossians 1: 10 (ESV)

Beloved, I understand that this walk in a world we no longer belong to is not an easy one. We get dragged into the carnal way too easily and way too often. The devil loves dragging us back into worldly affairs. With so many, one of the easiest buttons he pushes is politics. Nothing will separate friends quicker but we are not supposed to be mere friends. We are supposed to be brethren. So much so that when the actual mother and brother of Jesus were trying to get in to see Him one day He answered that the ones who are actually His mother and brother are those that do the will of the Father. We have responsibilities as Christians beloved. I know this is not preached anymore inside a church that exists to tell you all the things God wants to do for you. That is too bad because we ought to be deeply concerned with what God expects from us.

One thing that is obvious and comes through in every Gospel account is that Jesus Christ spoke against hypocrisy at every turn. He said to not pray loudly as hypocrites do. He said to not give openly as hypocrites do, for carnal credit. Do not make long prayers. Do not take the good seats at a banquet table. One of the criticisms God often leveled against His people was that they honored Him with their mouths but their hearts were far from Him. That is the spiritual definition of hypocrisy. The Bible refers to hypocrisy as a sin. It is no small matter. Why? For starters, God is truth and hypocrisy is false. Going a little deeper though the reality is that hypocrisy is easy to spot and can ruin our witness for the only thing that should matter to us -- the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Despite false teachings you may have heard, God will not have one thing to say to us about our vote when we stand before Him. He will have a lot to say however with what we did with the Gospel that was entrusted to us. What is the number one reason given by people who refuse to go to church for staying away? Hypocrisy from Christians. We keep them away. Remember when Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for locking up the kingdom of heaven to those seeking it what was the word He used to describe them? Hypocrites.

So we come back to the Republican candidate for president this year and the Christians who have not only aligned themselves with him but have defended him vociferously. It is time to walk away from Donald Trump before what is left of your witness is destroyed. That does not mean you have to support someone else. It means you stop supporting that which makes you appear quite hypocritical. We have to understand something. We are the genesis of the pro-life movement. We are the ones who preach all the time about the sanctity of life. We are the ones who talk correctly about God numbering the very hairs on our head and knowing us inside the womb. But life is not just in the womb beloved. Life is everything until Jesus calls us home and the man you are supporting has just openly called for the assassination of his opponent.

"If she gets to pick her judges --nothing you can do"Although the 2nd Amendment people maybe there is" -- Donald Trump

Please, before you try the spin machine, I am not playing around anymore. Everyone who is being intellectually honest knows exactly what he meant when he said it. As a people we were once grossly and publicly offended by the word games Bill Clinton played with the word "is" and this is far worse. To pretend otherwise is simply hypocritical. If you can listen to these comments and shrug your shoulders then it is a serious time to take inventory about where you are. Because it would sure appear that your zeal is for the things of this world and not the Gospel. Beloved, we rightly rail against a culture that promotes death and devalues life. Not just abortion but in nearly everything we see in society. Movies, video games, television. Is it any wonder that a presidential candidate would publicly suggest people kill his opponent? No but it does not mean the Christians have to stand with him and nod their heads in approval.

In 2011, Jared Loughner walked into a Safeway in Tucson Arizona, walked up to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and shot her in the head. He shot 19 people that day, killing six of them including little nine year old Christina Taylor-Green. I remember writing at the time about not having the answers but about the need for us to look as a society at how we devalue life. Kids today have witnessed over 200,000 simulated acts of violence and murders by the age of 18. Whereas 30 years ago we grew up with wrestling, today kids grow up with MMA cage matches. They are not stupid either. They watched as Congress did absolutely nothing after one of their own was almost killed in 2011 by Loughner. They watched years later when Congress again did nothing when Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School and slaughtered 20 children under the age of seven. We all know the stories. We all know the Columbine's we have had to endure. There are a myriad of contributive factors. Besides the violent nature of our country there is an increase in latchkey children being raised by social media as opposed to involved parents. There is a dramatic increase in medicating people with psychotropic drugs that often break people from reality as opposed to helping them. There is the proliferation of available weapons and the politicians who refuse to have any sensible conversation about the subject. While these are all contributive reasons, we as Christians know that evil is simply at the heart of it all. We are evil by nature. While words cannot be blamed alone, they certainly matter. You or I may be able to hear Donald Trump suggest assassinating Hillary Clinton and rightly dismiss the comments as flippant, crazy and easily dismissed. Others however cannot process it as such. There are more Jared Loughners and Adam Lanzas out there beloved. The Santa Barbara killer went on his rampage because he couldn't find a girlfriend. The human condition is extremely frail and does not require too much of a push to go over the edge. It is all of our responsibility to not be a party to that push. It is especially the responsibility of people who have a public forum. You cannot openly speak so casually about killing someone else and think you bear no responsibility. It does not matter if you meant it as a joke or an offhand comment. You are responsible.

The other people who have a duty to not be associated with such comments are Christians. We are commanded to let no corrupting talk come out of our own mouths. Standing by silently or in defiant approval of these comments makes us just as culpable as if we uttered them ourselves. It is time we took serious stock of ourselves in relation to the Savior we claim to serve. The key verses provide us with some simple guidelines in this manner. Are we walking in a manner worthy of the Lord? Jesus Christ died our death and took our punishment on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. So that all might come to repentance. Are we more obsessed with our politics than the Gospel? That we can hear a man openly call for the death of his opponent and find any excuse imaginable to pretend he did not say it and still fool ourselves that we are walking in a manner worthy of the Lord? Do we honestly think that this is somehow fully pleasing to Him? That God is actually pleased with our standing next to such evil? Please, do get things twisted. Admitting that one candidate is evil and not worthy of our Christian witness does mean that other is somehow righteous by default. This is a little game we play in our wicked hearts to defend the evil we know we have lined up with. It is certainly not pleasing to the Lord beloved.

Our works in this world are to result in good fruit. Consider if you will the fruit of the Spirit as taught in Scripture; "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Is there anything loving, joyful, kind, good, gentle or self-controlling about calling for the murder of someone else? How can we stand with it then and look the other way? The final instruction in the key verse is that we should always be increasing in the knowledge of God. In order to do that we have to not only be found in prayer and His Word but be doers of his Word as James commands us. James tells us that if we merely hear the Word we are like a man or woman who walks away from a mirror and immediately forgets what we look like. That is the state many of us are in today. We have forgotten what we are supposed to look like in this world. A shining city on a hill. Salt and light. We are supposed to be the least hypocritical people, not the definition of hypocrisy. We cannot stand up screaming about the sanctity of life and then giggle and nod when a man we have publicly supported advocates for murder. The message will not be lost on this dying world beloved. Only our witness will be.

Rev. Anthony.



Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

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