Idolatry and rage

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Before today’s Jericho March in Phoenix, as we waited for a prayer gathering to begin outside the Arizona capitol building, a man dressed in a suit (probably the best-dressed man in the large crowd) came to the microphone to encourage us to focus on God’s providence during this election crisis. Drawing our attention to the winged statue atop the capitol dome (which looks like an angel), he explained that the statue actually functions as a weather vane, turning one direction or another depending upon which way the wind is blowing. As he pointed out that in God’s providence, the wind was directing this “angel’s” face toward us, a man in the crowd screamed at him, repeatedly calling the statue an idol and saying that it should be torn down. The well-dressed man at the microphone, speaking in gentle tones, invited the heckler to come to the microphone to explain his concerns. Instead, the heckler just stayed where he was, continuing to scream about idolatry.

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Voting to end the American Holocaust

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(This is part two of a series. Tap here to read the first half, which focused on scriptural examples of God’s people who virtuously supported flawed heathen leaders.)

Winston Churchill, known to be intentionally rude at times, was passionate to save the Jews from Hitler at a time when other world leaders (including our own) preferred to look the other way.

Does history offer any examples of holocausts which were ended by righteous rulers? I have found none. Instead, history seems to indicate that a narcissistic leader like Churchill is typically empowered by our sovereign God to lead urgent life-saving (and nation-saving) political tasks which often are too “dirty” for perfectionistic Christians to accomplish.

Are Christians then helpless to do anything in our nation to end the American Holocaust of abortion? Should we follow those who make the pledge to refuse to offer any support for any politician who falls short of penalizing every abortion as murder (in an effort to “immediately” end every abortion)? Or shouldn’t our primary goal first be to seek to support politicians who will allow Christians to pursue efforts to protect the lives of vulnerable children?

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Must Christians vote only for righteous leaders?

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Nehemiah bows to King Artaxerxes

A battle is raging all around us for the future of our nation. The current election is a key aspect of that battle, as the leaders we are now choosing will set the agenda for our nation on many urgent battlefields (including but not limited to abortion) which will have a huge impact on all of us in the next few years and beyond. Does God expect His people to get our hands dirty to make a difference in this battle, or would He want us to only cast our vote symbolically, choosing the most impossible “righteous” candidate even though we have no doubt that by doing so our vote will have no impact on the many critical battles impacting all of us?

Everyone knows that the current major candidates do things which are often embarrassing and sinful. Is it a sin to support such a political leader whose actions at times seem to show a lack of respect for God? Or does God actually call His people to honor and serve unrighteous leaders for righteous purposes?

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Gospel-centered pro-life podcast interview

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Gospel-centered pro-life podcast

Pastor Daniel Parks, executive director of Cities4Life in Charlotte, interviewed Tim and Terri Palmquist during their recent visit to North Carolina. He entitled the interview “Gleaning Wisdom from Pro-Life Pioneers….” Beginning with how Christians responded to Roe v. Wade, the Palmquists explained how God led them into pro-life ministry, even using a girl’s lie for good. They also shared how God saved a child physically and spiritually, how God used a baby in a jar, and some personal experiences with Operation Rescue and Life Chain. The Palmquists point to their relationship with a true pro-life pioneer leading them to get involved with national efforts to end abortion, realizing how churches and politics are not incompatible. But some of the most important wisdom originated from a Charlotte-based hero. Listen to the Gospel-centered pro-life podcast directly at this link: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gospel-centered-pro-life-podcast/id1474399522?i=1000458631887

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Suffering through Christmas, joyfully

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The powerful grace of voluntary suffering is integral to the essence of Christ-mas joy. From the moment that Mary first heard the angel’s greeting, she knew that she would be facing serious pain (with joy). Pregnancy at this moment in her life would not only be scandalous but even life-threatening, due to the penalty for a condition which would be seen as an indication that she had been unfaithful to her betrothed husband, Joseph. Yet Mary humbly, willingly, even gratefully (that is, gracefully) accepted this lifelong path of suffering.

Mary cradles Jesus in her womb.

Her situation was quite unique, because the Child she was graced to carry had chosen this path of suffering, from the foundation of the world. Jesus chose to clothe Himself in tender flesh and blood (even the tenuous condition of a microscopic conceptus), so that He could sacrifice Himself to favor Mary (and all others who would so humbly accept Him) with grace. He chose this path of suffering not through a morbid desire to maximize His personal pain, but “for the joy set before Him,” for the eternal benefit of His offspring like Mary.

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The (unseen) children of Christmas

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(This is my latest article for the Pastors Pro-Life Resource Center.)

Elizabeth's preborn baby leaps at Mary's greeting

The baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps at the presence of Mary’s newly-conceived baby

The value of pre-born life is foundational to Christmas, just as protecting children is an essential of the Gospel Jesus preached. While Christmas celebrations focus on the manger, the miracle of the Incarnation did not happen in Bethlehem. The “Word became flesh” not at the time of the virgin birth, but when Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb, as heralded by the angel Gabriel.

In response to Gabriel’s announcement, Mary hurried to the home of her relative Elizabeth, who was in the midst of her own miraculous pregnancy, as Gabriel had also announced. When Mary greeted Elizabeth, the presence of Jesus (deep within Mary’s womb) inspired preborn John the Baptist to leap for joy in Elizabeth’s womb.
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Discerning religious Gates of Hell

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(This is part of my recent series on the Gates of Hell.)

As we confront today’s child-killing Gates of Hell under the power and promise of Christ, we labor alongside others whose definition of Christianity looks different from our own. Some of our friends have become very offended at what they consider to be idolatrous prayers and practices of some of our co-laborers.

Good Samaritan

A Samaritan rescues an injured man who had been shunned by a priest and Levite.

This offense of idolatry may seem to overshadow the offense of abortion, causing our friends to focus instead on attacking the religion of our co-laborers as another “Gate of Hell.” This problem often weakens or even destroys anti-abortion efforts.

If the Church is to faithfully confront the Gates of Hell, we must indeed first be sure to properly (and fully) identify these gates. Ignoring one gate while confronting all others is likely to prove to be futile in the long run.

Jewish leaders did not limit the concept of the Gates of Hell to Gehenna; the burning of children there only provided the most obvious, disgraceful example. Idolatry and false religions were represented in Scripture as snares which led the nation of Israel on the pathway to child sacrifice (Psalm 106:36-39), along with sexual perversions (Ezekiel 16 and Ezekiel 23).
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Victory at the Gates of Hell: the Young Church

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Through His foundational proclamation that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church, Jesus set the stage for transforming the most repugnant atrocities in Jewish history into a decisive victory against the agenda of Hell.

Crying baby left to die

Ezekiel 16: God’s abandoned baby

Jesus equated Hell with Gehenna, a notorious place near Jerusalem where innocent children had been sacrificed by being burned. When wicked people plot to destroy the innocent in places like Gehenna, God promises to avenge this innocent blood by catching the wicked in their own traps (Psalm 9:12-16). This is a major theme of stories throughout the Bible, such as Haman being hung upon the pole he made to kill Mordecai in the book of Esther. Gates are often identified as places of judgment in scripture (Deuteronomy 16:18), and Jesus emphasized that those who murder the innocent warrant the judgment of Hell (Matthew 23:23).

Jesus considered attacks against children to be particularly heinous (Matthew 18:1-14), so it is no surprise that the early Church made the protection of orphans a high priority, an essential aspect of “pure and undefiled religion” (James 1:27). Christianity’s emphasis on the value of children was an extremely counter-cultural concept in the Roman Empire, where newborn children were not considered to be fully human (as some philosophers even asserted that babies were more like plants than human beings).
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Gates of Hell: Biblical history and modern reality

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When Jesus promised that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against His Church, how did His first audience interpret His words? The answer to this question has far-reaching implications for those of us who confront the hellish powers of abortion today.Hell

When Jesus spoke of Hell, He is usually quoted as having used the word “Gehenna,” which referred to a place well known to anyone who was familiar with Jerusalem. Gehenna was the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, also known as the Valley of Slaughter (Jeremiah 7:32) or Topheth (2 Kings 23:10): this was the notorious place where children were sacrificed, with the innocent blood shed in this place desecrating this land for generations to come (Psalm 106:38). Continue reading →

The grace crisis: ending abortion, or enabling it?

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Jesus helps an adulterous woman to her feet.

The way Jesus treated the woman who was caught in adultery is a powerful example of grace in action. But all too often we hesitate to follow Jesus’ powerful words.

Every Christian knows what “grace” means, but does anybody fully comprehend it? I have studied “grace” in depth in recent weeks 1, but the more I study, the more I realize how little I understand the depths of God’s “manifold” 2 (multi-colored) grace. I have long been grieved by witnessing so much destruction and pain springing from a weak, one-dimensional view of “grace,” but I am beginning to see that the true scriptural concept of “grace” itself contains the seeds which bear the potential to end abortion in the church.

It’s not unusual for pastors to focus on grace if they mention abortion. Typically, pastors are painfully aware of the fact that hearts of women 3 in their own congregation are experiencing raw pain because they have aborted their children. Being sensitive to the concerns of such hurting women, pastors focus on bringing healing and restoration to those in the congregation who have committed abortion, so pastors preach a message of “grace, not guilt.” But what does grace mean outside the context of guilt, or what does forgiveness mean without repentance?
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Notes:

  1. My study has involved not only scripture but secular Greek literature, in an effort to try to understand how the word χάρις (“charis”) would have been understood by those who first read New Testament books. My study is far from complete — in fact, I suspect that it will never end. ↩
  2. 1 Peter 4:10 ↩
  3. To simplify this discussion, I don’t refer here to the role of fathers (or other family members) in abortion, but of course most of my references to abortive mothers also relate to abortive fathers. ↩