When a good friend and I would get together when we were in our child rearing years we would talk and talk, comparing parenting strategies, work news, and family or home issues. As we were talking one day my husband looked at us and asked (with a smile), “When you two talk, who listens?”
We laughed as we were both keeping up with the conversation, no problem. (This may be one of those differences in how God made men and women.)
The question came to mind as I watching some short reels of Christian street preachers out proclaiming the Word of God. The reels varied from abolitionists at abortion mills to college campuses and one man on the boardwalk at a beach. They all had to talk over some sort of opposing noise.
The opposition often appeared to be demonic, evil on some level. Often the opposition just tries to drown the Christian out with loud noise. Some of it is full of profanities or just heavy metal that sounds evil to my ears. I cannot imagine what a woman is thinking when she pulls up to kill her baby and hears that noise and still consents to let them escort her into the building.
Interesting, but also disturbing, are the Charlie Kirk type visits Christians are making to college campuses. One thing that stands out clearly is that there is a generation of students who have a greater faith in a socialist government than they do in the Lord God Almighty. These students would have the state confiscate every gun in the U.S., have the primary responsibility to feed the hungry, and pay for everyone’s higher education. There seems to be little acknowledgment that the Church should have a role or that their own taxes would be exorbitant.
In these situations that question, “When you two talk, who listens?” seems to apply. There are a lot of words that come out the mouths of the Christians and their oppressors but there rarely seems to be any headway of changing anyone’s view. Of course, the Lord can use these words to inform or convict a person in teh crowd and the preacher may not see the fruit of his labor on earth.
Street preachers, it seems, are part of the missionary force sent to, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matthew 28:19-20).
Yet, it seems that they get almost as much backlash from Christians as they do from the unbelievers. Some Christian critics think that it is harsh to go and tell people that they are sinning against God when they fail to keep His law. They don’t like the direct approach of teaching the horror of the murder of children in the womb through graphic pictures of aborted babies. They think they are too loud at the gay pride event or the boardwalk at the beach, suggesting that a person’s leisure time is not the right time to present the truth to them.
Personally, I love a good one to one sit-down with a cup of coffee and my Bible to have a theological discussion with someone, especially one who doesn’t know her Bible. But, if we are afraid or embarrassed to go out and tell others the Truth of what Christ has done for them, to take the penalty for their sin, should we not at least be grateful and encourage those who have this bold courage to go on the street and speak the truth in love? And, please understand, it is love to make someone aware of his need for Christ’s sacrifice because of his/her own sinful nature.
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:13-14)
Beth,
You referenced Matthew 38:19-20.
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen (Matthew 28:19-20).
In my study of this passage, I learned that the word “ethnos” is Strong’s # 1484, meaning “race, tribe, or pagans.”
Based on this definition, it seems that I, as an ambassador for King Jesus, am to only “make disciples” of God’s elect living within the pagan nation of people after they have been baptized by the Holy Spirit and regenerated and have repented and been reconciled to God.. If my reading of this passage is correct, then we can’t expect every member of the pagan nation or political community to be reconciled to God, since although many are called, few are chosen.
So, we would only be baptizing and making disciples of God’s elect within the pagan nation or country who have been reconciled to God, not the whole nation of people. The things we are to teach these new people who have been reconciled to God are the things God has commanded us (believers) to observe.
We would have to know what God has commanded us to observe to be able to teach these things to new converts
Some of the questions that I have struggled with over the past 70-some years as a man reconciled to God are:
Has God instructed His ambassadors to become fellow citizens and yoke themselves with unregenerate unbelievers in a secular humanistic body politic and pledge their allegiance, fidelity, and obedience to the civil law of that secular humanistic form of government when we know that we, upon being born anew, become “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God?”
If all things become new upon regeneration, conversion to Christ, and adoption into the family of God, would this not include a change of standing as fellow citizens in the political community?
I can tell you that when you begin to carry out your duties as a “good soldier warring for Jesus Christ you will have to endure hardness. As you know, “No man that warreth [for King Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven] tangles himself with the affairs of this life, so that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. – 2 Timothy 2: 1-4
The first rule of warfare I learned in the U.S. Army back in the 1960s was that a good soldier must have access to good military intelligence about his enemy and how his enemy operates in battle, and how the enemy plans to win the victory in the next battle.
As soldiers warring for King Jesus are we to continue to become entangled in secular affairs, attempting to pressure the unregenerate unbelieving civil magistrate to base his rulings exclusively on the Law Word of God, or are we to call God’s people to come out of this secular humanistic form of government with all its thousands of civil rules and regulations and UNITE with God’s people in the one form of government that was laid on the shoulder of King Jesus?
We certainly cannot be united in two conflicting forms of government. If we are united in the living room we cannot also be united in the Kitchen at the same time
The 64-dollar question is, has God provided a lawful way for His people to come out of subjection to the civil jurisdiction of a secular humanistic form of government and its many civil or municipal statutes while remaining under the authority of and submitting to the civil rulers, when they act as ministers of God for the good of God’s people to execute wrath upon those who do evil.
Civil law requires the consent of the people, whereas criminal law does not. One is found “guilty” of committing a crime, while one is found “liable” for violating some statute or agency regulation that they have voluntarily consented to and bound themselves to carry out or obey.
Beth, I am convinced that God wants you to share this information with your husband, who I believe is acting in the office of Elder in the body of Christ. Please have your husband correct any errors I have made in what I have written above. I am seeking the truth as I am sure you and your husband are as well.
Finally, I want to share the following section from the U.S. Code.
“All citizens of the United States shall have the SAME right, in every State [of the Union] and Territory [federal territory], as is enjoyed by WHITE CITIZENS thereof to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and personal property.” (R.S. Section 1978.)
Aren’t there two (2) classes of citizens mentioned in this section – i.e., “citizens of the United States (federal citizens) and “white citizens?”
Also search for the “Incorporation Doctrine,” where you will find that the U.S. Supreme Court has held that not all the amendments in the Bill of Rights have been incorporated in the “due process of law” provision of Amendment 14.
The term “civil rights” has three meanings. (1) Civil rights are such as belong to every citizen of the State [not federal citizens] and all its inhabitants, and are NOT CONNECTED with the organization or administration of government. They include the rights of property, marriage [without a marriage license], protection by the laws [not protection of citizens by the civil government], freedom of contract [and freedom not to contract with government], and trial by jury. etc. – Winnett v Adams, 71 Neb. 317, 99 N.W. 681
Civil rights are OTHERWISE defined as rights appertaining to a “PERSON” [are God’s people “persons?”] in virtue of his citizenship in a state or community. Rights capable of being enforced or redressed in a CIVIL [not criminal] action.
Finally, the term “civil rights” is applied to certain rights SECURED to citizens of the United States [i.e., citizens of the federal government. [UNITED STATES is located in the District of Columbia] by the 13th and 14th amendments to the Constitution and by various acts of Congress made in pursuance thereof. – State of Iowa v. Railroad Co., C.C.Iowa, 37 f. 489, 3 L.R.A. 554; State v. Powers, 51 N.J.L 432, 17 A. 969 – These three definition of “civil rights” is found In Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, page 1487.
If you truly believe you were born an Amendment 14 citizen of the United States, then do you know what federal citizenship is and what your “rights and obligations” of citizenship are?
Federal citizenship – Rights and OBLIGATIONS that ACCRUE because of being a citizen of the United States. [it is] the state or STATUS of being a citizen of the United States or a PERSON born or naturalized in THE [not these] United States AND SUBJECT TO the jurisdiction thereof [i.e., jurisdiction of the federal government located in the District of Columbia] and of the State wherein he RESIDES. – 14th Amendment.
How would a man or woman be born subject to federal jurisdiction when they were born in one of the States of the Union?
Are God’s people “residents” in a State of the Union, or are they sojourning strangers?
Residence – Bodily presence and the intention of remaining in a place, to sit down. to stay in a place, to settle, to remain, and is made up of FACT and INTENTION. The fact of abode and the intention of remaining are a combination of ACTS and INTENTION. Residence implies something more than mere physical presence and something LESS than domicile. – Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition.
Sojourning – This term means something more than “traveling,” and applies to a temporary, as contradistinguished from a PERMANENT residence.
So, Beth, are God’s people permanent residents in Pennsylvania, or are we “sojourners” and “strangers” living “by faith” as in a foreign country as temporary residents just passing through on our way to our “domicile” or one, fixed and permanent home in the city that God has prepared for His people in the better heavenly country LIKE Abraham “confessed” he was doing in Hebrews 11:8-16
If we today do any less that Abraham did ” by faith” would God be ashamed to be called our God?
.
Since you are involved with the Future of Christendom group could you at least define the word “Christendom” for me? What is Christendom and where in the Bible is the term defined?
I will continue to pray for you and your husband and all my brothers and sisters in Lancaster County.
Peace.
Beth,
For your information:
Public Law 97-280 codified the Bible as a statute.
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-96/pdf/STATUTE-96-Pg1211.pdf
This statue brought this verse to mind:
Mat_15:8 ‘THESE PEOPLE DRAW NEAR TO ME WITH THEIR MOUTH, AND HONOR ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME.