by Daniel Brown
The Cure
“We are not going to move this world by the criticism of it, nor conformity to it, but by the combustion within it of lives ignited by the Spirit of God.” - Vance Havner
So, what do we do? Should we just sit on our hands? Should we say nothing? Should we do nothing while lives are being taken, people are being abused, and injustice is pervading every aspect of our society? Absolutely not! Why do we feel that the answer can only be found in the extremes? We are required by God to make a difference. It is our Christian duty, not to protest, but to proclaim. There is a difference. While demonstrations, adhering to the aforementioned criteria, are permissible, they are ultimately useless unless the Lord Jesus Christ is being preached to those on both sides of the issue.
The abominable preaching of “replacement theology” (the teaching that Israel, and the subsequent promises to Israel in the scriptures can be replaced with the church, a country, or any other entity) in our churches has raised a society to believe that we can somehow make this world “Christian”. This is not scriptural, and it is not God’s will. The world will not evolve into something better, or more Christ-like, when we protest and hold public demonstrations. To be sure, decisions will be made that may fix one problem, all the while making way for yet another. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul warned Timothy that the “last days” would be “perilous times” (dangerous). He said that things would get “worse and worse”, not increasingly better. Away with the idea that we can Christianize the nation through policies, politics, and protests.
How do we do “fix” this? What is the cure? It is very complex and very simple at the same time. The cure to the violence issue, the cure to racial discrimination, the cure to drugs, the cure to sexual abuse, and the cure to any other problem which is rooted in sin, is the preaching of the gospel. This was for Christ, complex. In fact, it was brutal. For us, it is simple. He had to come to earth and lay aside his glory to perish for the debt of unworthy sinners. We must simply repent and believe the gospel. Our mission is simply to proclaim salvation in His name.
No; preaching the gospel will not prevent all future mass murderers from killing people, but neither will restricting the rights of gun owners. Preaching the gospel will not prevent all mothers from aborting their unborn children, but neither will political policies. The best that a policy can do is to make someone’s world a better place from which he will go to Hell. This sounds harsh, but it is true. The preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ however, can change that same person’s eternal destination. Subsequently, the clear proclamation of the gospel of Christ dramatically improves that person’s “world”, and that of those around him.
Our responsibility is not to make the world a better place from which to go to hell. It is to simply, with words and actions, preach Jesus Christ. How much more effective would our demonstrations be, if we used them as opportunities to challenge our fellow-protesters to search the Scriptures? How much more powerful would the difference be in our communities, if we would use the evil in the world as an opportunity to speak of our own sinful nature, and need for redemption through Jesus Christ?
It is the height of hypocrisy, and it is the cruelest of treatment to publicly give our voice to promote a social cause, if we are not using that same platform to preach Jesus Christ.
This has been the sixth part of a PDF entitled iProtest by Daniel Brown. For the entire PDF, please click here.