Outraged

My dad passed away on June, 7, 2001.  The older he got the more disgusted he became with the anti-Christ direction our western world was heading.  From his prophetic perspective things would only get worse and so he'd often quote Acts 2:40.  "Save yourself from this corrupt generation."  In the spring of 2001when he was dying of cancer he was more than ready to leave this life for his heavenly home.  Like dad, the older I get the more my outrage with our anti-Christ culture grows, but more than that is my outrage with what I see in our western world church.   

Note what Luke 7:33 - 34 (HCSB) says.  "John the Baptist did not come eating bread and drinking wine and you say, 'He has a demon!'  The Son of Man has come eating and drinking and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners."  Jesus didn't seem overly outraged by the behaviour of sinners or else He would not have eaten bread and drank wine with them.  That wasn't the case with the Jewish elite who were outraged with Jesus for His association with sinners.  It's my guess that many Evangelicals today would be outraged if they saw Jesus eating pizza and drinking wine or beer with sinners.  For the record, the wording of this text implies that Jesus drank wine, not grape juice.  Besides, grape juice wasn't invented until 1869 when Thomas Welch learned how to pasteurize grapes to prevent the fermentation process.

What really irritated Jesus were those He irritated, that being the religious leaders.  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites … (Matthew 23:13, 14, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29 NIV)!"  "Snakes!  Brood of vipers!  How can you escape being condemned to hell (Matthew 23:33 NIV)?" 

Jesus was not a wimp.  Being a carpenter required Him to carry massive blocks of rock.  That would have necessitated muscular strength.  His strength was seen on a couple of occasions when He was so upset over what God's people had become that He threw over the tables of commerce in the temple.  This tells me something about Jesus that few like to admit.  He gets angry when we pollute what belongs to Him with our sin. 

Like Jesus, I believe we should be more outraged by what we are seeing in His church than by what we are seeing in our anti-Christ culture.  For example, a professor at Wheaton College, a 150 plus year old conservative Evangelical Bible and liberal arts college in Wheaton, Illinois, U.S.A., wore an Islamic Hijab this past Christmas season in support of Islam.  She believes that Christians serve the same god as Muslims; and she's an Evangelical teacher?  That's not only unbiblical, it's illogical.  That should outrage us.  I applaud the college for relieving her of her position.  Read more at; 

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/december
/wheaton-college-hijab-professor-same-god-larycia-hawkins.html

I admit that I'm becoming like my dad.  Our anti-Christ culture does disturb me at times but what disturbs me most is the decline of Biblical Christianity I see in that which we call the Evangelical Western Church.  I expect this from the so-called liberal church, which I don't call church, but not from what we've known as Evangelicalism.  If this doesn't outrage you, I suggest you read what outrages Jesus in these matters.     

"I hold this against you:  You have forsaken your first love. If you don't repent … I will remove your lampstand (Revelation 2:4 - 5 NIV)."  Lampstand means church.  See Revelation 1:20. 

"I have a few things against you:  You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam … Repent!  Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth (Revelation 2:14 - 16 NIV)."

"I have this against you:  You tolerate … Jezebel … she misleads my servants … unless they repent … I will strike their children dead (Revelation 2:20 - 23)." 

"Wake up!  Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of God … if you do not wake up I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you (Revelation 3:1 - 4 NIV)."

"Because you are luke-warm … I am about to spit you out of my mouth (Revelation 3:16 NIV)."

Although Ultra Dispensationalists and some others differ, most Prophetic Futurists believe Jesus was outraged with New Testament churches in the above passages.  Whatever the case, all believe that Jesus was angry with communities of people belonging to Him. 

Jesus is no longer a muscular carpenter who overthrew a few tables.  He is Lord of all things and is capable of doing more than merely messing up a few tables.  I know we don't like hearing these things but neither did Jews in Old Testament times.  They rejected the prophetic message and God judged them accordingly. 

Many of us don't have the Word of God burned into our intellects, hearts and souls, sufficiently enough to grasp the severity and seriousness of this matter.  Unless we repent, embrace God's Word, and become outraged at where our laxity is leading us, Jesus will remove our churches from their places as Revelation 2:4 and 5 says He is capable of doing.  The true church will then emerge and commune with Jesus (Revelation 3:20). This prophetic warning is just as appropriate today as it was when John penned the book of Revelation.