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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Christians
In Conflict I
was a month away from my 20th birthday.
It was November, 1971, just 4 months after I graduated from high
school. Myself and three
friends; one prophet and two apostles, were hanging out at "You've
got to stop this", the principal of the school shouted as he pushed
his way through the crowd. Now
nobody tells a prophet to stop preaching.
"You can't stop me from preaching in the name of
Jesus". My prophet
friend couldn't be more adamant. "I'll
give you a classroom to preach in. I'll
announce over the public
address system that you'll be there after school.
We just can't have this chaos in the hallway".
The principal was just as adamant as the prophet.
The
prophet of God agreed. As we
would have said back then,
"man, this is far out". Come
4 o'clock, we were there, eager, ready, and more than willing to preach
our hearts out. It was
standing room only, with both teachers and students in attendance.
Looking
kind of prophetic, with his black hair and long black trench coat, the
prophet proclaimed the Word of the Lord in good old John the Baptist
style. "1 John 1:8 says
that if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us …" After
ten minutes or so a teacher's voice was heard above the voice of the
prophet. "I'm not a
sinner, and I'm sure not deceived". "But
you are a sinner, and you sure are deceived".
The prophet held nothing back as he quoted 1 John 2:4. "The
man who says I know God, but does not do what He commands is a
liar'".
Gasps
were heard from across the room. Did
the young prophet just call the teacher a liar?
The teacher sure thought so.
Visibly angered, he stormed out of the room in defiance and
disgust. The classroom was
now in a chaotic uproar. Our
Billy Graham style evangelical campaign was over.
The prophet was just another wacko Jesus Freak in the eyes of
those shaking their heads as they left the room. Interestingly
enough, there was one teacher who invited us back to speak to her world
religions class. We felt
like the early apostles; persecuted in one town, or in this case one
room, but welcomed in another. News
of this spread across town. We
were subsequently invited to another high school and a community
college. We didn't hold
anything back. We preached
the repentance of sin as the Bible defines sin.
All people everywhere had to hand their lives over to the Lord
Jesus to escape the Our
culture, and parts of what we call church, have redefined
the Biblical meaning of sin that my want-to-be prophet friend proclaimed
so valiantly. This has
created a conflict between Christians and culture, whether secular
culture or reliigous culter. If we haven't already, it's time to blow the dust off the
youthful boldness we once possessed.
We need it now more than ever, and here's one reason why.
Christian
Crossroads Communications is a Christian broadcasting organization in Canada. They've raised more than
35 million dollars from private donations over the last 30 years for
humanitarian aid around the world. Recently
they received $544,813.00 from the Canadian government to help provide
fresh water to parts of Uganda. Government helps fund
humanitarian projects like this all the time.
It saves them from getting involved.
Canada's Foreign Affairs minister,
John Baird, has publicly "taken offense" to the "mean
spirited" remarks on Crossroad's web site.
The remarks in question is a simple statement setting forth
Biblical values concerning sexuality.
Foreign Affairs minister, John Baird, is outraged.
He says that Crossroads does not reflect the "Canadian
values of tolerance, acceptance, and diversity".
Many Canadians are just as outraged, and wonder why the
government would give funds to such an intolerant and bigoted group.
See more at. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2013/02/12/pol-cida-baird- Thomas
Mulchair, the leader of the New Democratic Party, the official
opposition in the Canadian parliament, agrees.
He says that Evangelicals are out of step with Canadian values
when it comes to matters of sexuality. I'm surprised that a prominent
politician would take the risk of alienating an important segment of his
constituency with that remark. This
tells me that the conflict is escalating.
Mulchair neither cares for Evangelicals or cares if he alienates
them. Sad to say, Mulchair
is right. There's an ever
widening gap between Canadian culture and Christian Biblical culture.
The wider the gap, the more the conflict.
Evangelicals are outdated, intolerant, bigoted, and, just a
bunch of wacko Jesus Freaks. See
more at; http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2013/02/11/evangelicals-are-un-canadian-ndp-
Kathleen
Wynne is the province
of Ontario's new openly gay premier. Premier
is the equivalent to governor in the U.S.. She's made no secret
about being gay, so neither should I.
Her plan is to reintroduce the "graphic sex education
curriculum" for primary school students that was defeated in
provincial parliament in 2010. This
curriculum would teach Canada's new sexual values, the values that Evangelicals call sin, to children
as young as 6 years old. It's
clear, Christians are in conflict with culture.
Our Biblical based values oppose all things cultural.
It's not that we want a fight.
We'd rather live in peace, but we will not exchange Biblical
values for desired peace. It's
not that we have a persecution complex.
We just cannot forsake the Lord Jesus Christ, not now, not ever. The
Bible tells us that "it has been granted to us on behalf of Christ
not only to believe on Him, but to suffer for Him". (Philippians
1:29)
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