Biblical Conduct - Part 15 Application for America (Part 1)
By Ben Quine
**This article is part of a series written by Ben Quine that takes us through the whole of Scripture to discover what God has to say about how we as believers in Jesus Christ should conduct ourselves both inside the church and outside in our public and private lives. You will discover that the Word of God has much to say about our conduct.
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” (Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956)
Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. (I John 3:18)
All Christians are clearly commanded to love our neighbors, and John instructs us that our love must be more than verbal affirmation — we must teach the whole council of God and take action on behalf of those around us. When the Church and believers do not love the culture through our actions and by teaching the whole truth, everyone suffers.
As Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
This is why throughout history the forces of evil have devised schemes to silence and remove God’s people. God’s enemies have worked tirelessly to cancel Him, His Word, and His people. Pharaoh ordered the murder of all male Hebrew children (Exodus 1:16). Haman the Agagite, imposed a law that would provoke God’s enemies throughout the kingdom of Persia “to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, young and old, women and children, in one day” (Esther 3:13). King Herod ordered the murder of all “the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under” (Matthew 2:16). Antiochus IV Epiphanes desecrated the temple, sacrificing pigs on the altar in Jerusalem, forcing the high priest to eat the unclean offering, and eventually outlawing the worship of the living God altogether while installing Zeus worship in the temple. In 168–167 BC he sacked Jerusalem and installed a Greek military garrison there.
Satan hates God’s people and wants to remove all the light from the world.
When physical force and murder are not a readily-available option, the wicked often utilize intimidation and social pressure. These methods are highly effective, since people are easily scared into silence by the fear of social ridicule, ostracization, isolation, or “cancel culture.” These are all ancient practices, as may be seen by the fact that the Egyptians removed Joseph from their historical records.
Modern variations on this theme include claims that Christians who speak God’s truth are committing “violence against others,” and that Christians are thus guilty of “microaggressions” or “hate crimes.” Our government also threatens financial penalties for churches that dare to violate the rules of “acceptable speech” which they have imposed for religious institutions. These current adaptations of intimidation stem heavily from Marxist philosophy, which gives birth to Socialism and Communism.
Socialism’s promise of “equal outcomes for all” presents a beautiful-sounding vision – the problem is that Marxism is a lie.
Marxist philosophy rejects God, private property, the family, and even the concept of sin, and it imposes its will through brute force. Marxism has brought poverty, death, and oppression to hundreds of millions, while the elite ruling class lived in luxury. Worldwide, Communism is responsible for the murder of over 85 million+ people, the removal of freedom of speech and religion, the torture of millions, the installation of injustice, and extreme poverty for all except those who join the evil ruling system.
As Solzhenitsyn so poignantly reminds us, we must know the truth and how to defeat the lies of Socialism and Communism, as well as their modern repackaged variants: Critical Theory, Political Correctness, and Progressivism, or millions more will suffer.
The wonderful news is that the Biblical Worldview supports true justice, equality, and freedom. The Biblical Worldview stands for human rights and dignity of all! Socialism is the counterfeit. The Biblical Worldview is the real thing, the loving position that provides and protects according to God’s immutable truth.
For more information, see the Answers for Difficult Days books on Economics and Justice.
Tragically, the enemies of God hold much power in our land today. They are threatening to use it to enforce tyranny, rip away human rights, persecute and silence all opposition, and enslave and kill millions of people through the evil, power-hungry philosophy of Marxism. They are creating government agencies to redefine “truth” and punish any who question their edicts. They have empowered the IRS to target religious organizations and churches. They want children to be taught only the destructive and harmful philosophies of Moral Relativism, Darwinism, and Marxism in schools. They seek to enforce a “social credit score,” which is just a nice-sounding name for Revelation-style controls over who can work, buy and sell, and who can freely move about in society.
And all the while they seek to silence the Church through intimidation, cancel culture, political correctness, and censorship. Christians face the threat of social shaming over espousing Biblical views on gender, marriage, and sexuality. They face the possibility of loosing their job, being harassed, or boycotted. They are called bigots, homophobic, transphobic, hateful, toxic. They have been physically assaulted and arrested for protecting life. When these threats fail, the culture applies social pressure and the false view that “good manners” should keep believers from speaking the truth in love.
For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:38)
Jesus had no praise for those in his day who valued “proper etiquette” over doing what was right, and he will not respect Christians today who refuse to speak the truth because it might offend the wicked (Matthew 23:13-36).
These social pressures, combined with digital censorship, constitute very real and tangible efforts aimed against Christians in America today, but if we choose acceptance by society over obedience to God, there will be severe consequences for us and all those around us (James 4:4)
So we all must act!
Like the shepherd David, we are surrounded by those who defy the Lord and who are intent on bringing death to the sheep (I Samuel 17:41-54), so if we love our neighbors and the family of God, we must oppose them, because a good shepherd is a warrior who fights against those attacking his flock.
Maybe you have felt God’s call to protect the sheep, but you’ve been seized by fear? Courage doesn’t mean we never experience fear – it means that, like David, when we are afraid, we focus on God, trust in Him, and obey Him (Joshua 1:9, Deuteronomy 31:7-8, Psalm 56:3-4). All the Israelites were frozen with fear because they looked at Goliath, but David was filled with power because he focused on God. You can experience freedom from fear!
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. (Ephesians 5:11)
Like John the Baptist, we should oppose evil and stand for the Biblical Worldview. We are all called to love the sheep, and that means we must hate evil: we must turn from it in our personal lives, and we must expose and oppose it in our culture. This is one of the most loving things you can do for your neighbors and your country!
It might be very costly, but, like Jesus Christ the good shepherd, we are called to lay down our lives for the sheep.