Extremely Unpopular

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of Heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive more abundant condemnation.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice more a son of Gehenna than yourselves.  Woe to you, blind guides, who say, Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is a debtor.  Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?  And, Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it is a debtor.  Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift?  Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it.  He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  And he who swears by Heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have disregarded the weightier matters of the law: judgment and mercy and faith. It is necessary to do these, and not to leave the others undone.  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.  Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.  Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.  Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How will you escape the condemnation of Gehenna?  Therefore, behold, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, in order that on you may come all the righteous blood poured out upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Truly, I say to you, All these things will come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, how often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!  Behold, your house is left to you desolate.  For I say to you: You shall see Me no more till you say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”  Matthew 23:13-39

 

There was a letter to the editor in the local newspaper.  This woman criticized the local band for playing Joy to the World during the christmas parade.  She warned the schools to be careful, that they could get sued for that, as well as mentioned how they were not being inclusive.  According to her, there could have been people who where there who did not celebrate such holidays.  I read the opinion article and did some brief research.

 

If what I believe I found is correct, the woman is in her early nineties and back in the 1990’s was visiting family in Florida, taking a part in the local antiwar protesting, that got her an interview with a newspaper there.  Normally I would never respond to such nonsense in the newspaper, but in this case I felt the Lord wanted me to. 

 

I typed up a letter and mailed it out to the newspaper, keeping it brief and on one page (letter in article below).  Every Saturday the newspaper publishes the letters to the editor and I noted that mine was not there.  Recently I have been working on a project that will be published at some point in the not too distant future, but had been pondering and seeking God’s will regarding the overall scope.

 

While I don’t know the details of the local newspapers reason not to publish my letter (perhaps they will eventually), what I do know is in the past I have been accused by law enforcement for being an extremist.  One example, when my family and I went ‘missing’, there was a CD that had been left in the computer.

 

That CD was a sermon from Paul Washer, called the Shocking Youth Message.  This was considered extremist religious material.  As far as the remainder, the articles that were published on a friend’s old website are still hidden on the bottom of the home page (We Will Never Forget link).  Definitely ground breaking articles, but hardly extreme.

 

So I looked up the modern day definition online of an extremist and found this:

 

extremist

 

A person who holds extreme or fanatical political or religious views, especially one who resorts to or advocates extreme action. 

 

Google Search

 

Well as far as Paul Washer, someone who preaches that many who think they are Saved are indeed not and calls for people to repent or else they will spend eternity in Hell, if that is extremist material than so be it!  For my old dictionary has a different definition:

 

extremist

 

One who goes to extremes in opinions or measures.

 

 

Webster’s University Dictionary Unabridged, 1942

 

Quite different, the modern day term is derogatory.  Someone could go to the extreme in planting a garden, trying to fish for the big one, collecting pink flamingos.  Yet in modern day terms an extremist is often tied to political and religious viewpoints.  Quite clearly that those who preach what Jesus taught, that unless one repents they will perish (Luke 13:3), that is nowadays considered extremist.  No wonder preaching repentance and faith in Christ as the means to Salvation, as well as warning about Hell, in our modern day society is extremely unpopular.  The experience has certainly given me an insight into that ongoing project.

 

The letter to the editor is below:

 

RE: Schools: Remember church, state separation

Letter to the Editor:

“Great men are not always wise, nor do the aged always discern justice.”  Job 32:9

Perhaps you are correct, perhaps you are right, that in such a wicked day as we live the lawyers of this world would be successful in a lawsuit against a school district playing Joy to the World.  Certainly I would not desire that schools taught religion.

What religion would they teach?  How would they teach religion?  Would they be better than the pastors around this country who refuse to properly divide God’s Word (2 Tim. 2:15)?  Though the Way be easy (Mt. 11:30), even Jesus warned about the lawyers.

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter in yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.”  Luke 11:52

One thing for certain is God, our Creator, is inclusive (Acts. 17:26).  For each individual, regardless of their religion or absent thereof, will stand before the Great White Throne judgment (Rev. 20:11-15).  There, unless that person has repented (Ac. 17:30-31, Lk. 13:3) and by faith believed into Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior (Ro. 10:8-10, Jn. 14:6), they will be excluded from entering Heaven and cast into the Lake of Fire for all of eternity. 

Even though such agendas are making waves through our society, I certainly would not want to be the one who would help to make waves, by pushing such ideological garbage upon the masses.  No rather, let me be the one who would warn those who would listen to turn from their ways (2 Chr. 7:14) and seek their Creator, before it is too late!

Take Heed!

“But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, prostitutes, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”  Revelation 21:8

 

Amen!