While the Christians who went to their deaths under the empire of Rome died for their faith, I fear they did not die for our faith. First, we must understand what Rome had against these saints. Part of the genius of the Roman empire was their “broad-mindedness.” They did not roll into town after their phalanxes had left not one brick upon another and rebuild from scratch. Instead it was their habit to assimilate. As they did with the Pharisees, they cut a deal. We will rule over you, but you can, by and large, keep doing what you were doing. Keep your temple. Worship there. Keep your traditions, your way of life. All we ask of you is that you pay your taxes, acknowledge our authority, and then this one other little thing- we need you to acknowledge that Caesar is Lord. Burn a pinch of incense, bow the knee, and then go back to what you were doing. You don’t even have to mean it.
The Christians’ problem was more political than narrowly theological. You see the very first creed of the church was just three words long, but managed to confront Rome at its heart. Christians were those who confessed Christ is Lord. They died by the thousands because they would not confess that Caesar is Lord.
Which brings us to our faith. We’re like the Pharisees. We have our worship services, our private convictions, and that’s where our faith ends. We submit to the world’s demands. As CS Lewis described it, “When the modern world says to us aloud, ‘You may be religious when you are alone,’ it adds under its breath, ‘and I will see to it that you never are alone.'” The rest of our lives are committed to the authority of the state, and to the diversions and distractions the broader culture provides. We are in no danger because we are no danger.
When the world calls our convictions “hate” we simply change them, insisting that our response to the wholesale turning over of God’s created order is more love, more appeasement, more assurance that we are not a danger. Some of us reinterpret our Bibles to get with the times. Some simply look away awkwardly when the Bible embarrasses us. We conflate the Biblical notion that all sin is rebellion against the living God and deserving of His judgment into something much safer. We embrace the notion that all sins are equal, making all of them innocuous, not worthy to be mentioned. When the Supreme Court made its most wicked ruling, upending the natural, God created order of things, we ignored it. When we finally woke up, we found safe, reasonable, Rome approved ways of “fighting” it. 48 years later and still over 2,000 little babies are literally murdered every day, right in our own neighborhoods, with our full knowledge and with the full protection of the state. And we are more interested in our favorite football team.
We worship a Jesus who will save us from our sins, but whose reign we’re willing to negotiate. We worship a state that simply requires of us that we be nice and keep our convictions to ourselves. We worship distraction, so that we won’t have to face our idolatry. We worship the acceptance of the broader culture, and sacrifice all else to get it. We’re not like our fathers who died for Jesus, but like our fathers that killed Him and the prophets God sent to call us to repentance, because they, like we, worship the god of this age.
Until we stop repenting to the god of this age for the plain teaching of the living God, and start repenting to the living God for bowing before the god of this age, we will be trodden underfoot. Until we weep for our sin, until we tear down the high places, until we cease to hand our children over to Moloch we will burn with Rome. Lord be merciful to us, sinners.
There are two reactions of the saints to God’s righteous rewards and ritual warning signs to determine who he turns to, because if we are wrong, we blame God for evil, just as he trained his saints. When a person lives with some kind of universal pragmatism in his thought life, because this theme of God’s wrath is absolutely necessary to guide us to identify with Christ. People have who God is. I think this is the difference between people with universal pragmatism beliefs and those who accept the doctrine of grace. This is the special true belief that God is. I asked where is God, is God special to the world? Then join their business! Two responses to these prayers… Brother, you are not praying for things that God does not want believers to pray.He has given up his anger, and now his pity will come to all those who serve him justice. Second, if you pray these prayers, God will avenge you in your angry prayers.
With their love of pragmatism, they will provide evidence that God’s wrath in the Old Testament was directed at his specially chosen people. They tried to eliminate the textual differences between the nation of Israel and the remnant of God. They said that God did well in Israel’s trial. In the Church of God in the Old Testament, we distinguish human anger not by responding to specific situations, but by knowing and understanding God’s anger and the specific teachings about the true anger of grace. When we say that all anger is judged by God, we are concerned that anger is a tool in these personal worldly relationships. When we lower our righteous anger, we curse our brother in Christ. Judged by the world. But when trying to get rid of all our pragmatic pursuits, we must choose which side. As Josue said…choose who you want to serve today.If you serve the god of pragmatism, please read this page; when you choose an immortal god, please give up your pursuit of the universe.
Either our salvation forces God to express his hostility towards us, or it does not. You did not give us a diploma to help you decide what a personal relationship should look like. We must choose! My prayer forces you to make a decision. We see that those who are in Christ Jesus will not be condemned. At the same time, we see that God is angry with the wicked every day. Let me give you the personality we need, if we are to accept this God whose love will not disappoint the saints. We must avoid the general emphasis on psychological anger.On the contrary, we should approach God because of who we are, direct all our anger towards him. If God is too young to love angry people, then he is a cruel God. He is a distant god. He is a god who obeys people’s wishes. Given the psychological anger. However, if God wants us to curse those who wish to do evil to the brother of his choice, then we allow God to be God. We are forced to choose this special love. We must hate the idols of pragmatism. Knowing God’s love must overcome all reasons, step out of his justice and determination, and be loved based on our mutual reaction. This is a very serious issue.God says that you either know who you are in Christ or just serve a pragmatic god.
God will not hesitate to respond to a person’s anger or what a person does as a cruel person; God’s anger is rapid and unshakable; he does not warn, as if suppressing his anger. Therefore, believers can trust God completely, because he has not misunderstood God’s terrible judgment. Believers who believe in his rebirth have received the terrible love of God. Anyone who understands anger in the Christian sense. He knew that this person either escaped the wrath of God, or should not believe in God, but was only involved in death. Believers who accept the doctrine of grace know how dangerous it is to resist God’s absolute ritual of judging the wicked. You will not share. Are you trying to incite violence against God’s chosen people by humiliating God?