Michael Bray
\n8 \u00a0September 2015<\/p>\n
Since we have embarrassed God –\u00a0 no, slighted<\/em> Him –\u00a0 no, offended <\/em><\/strong>Him\u00a0 by our selfish stupidity, observable among all the peoples –\u00a0we have a big problem. We have tolerated<\/strong> rather than prosecuted<\/strong> the practice of sexual perversion.\u00a0 Now, we who have refused to oppose evil will ourselves be opposed by those who take up the reins of power and rule without Law.\u00a0 We will be given over, even as God’s Word tells us, to the rule of Lawless “Jews,” “Christians” and Modernist Pagans.\u00a0 And those who oppose Lawlessness will be oppressed by the neo-pervert rulers.<\/p>\n To the point.\u00a0 The churches of God have been publicly silent in the face of the Lawlessness which has been advancing rapidly over the past half century. Yes, one may well trace the genesis of American Lawlessness back to the 18th century national foundations when the Constitution made no mention of God or his laws.\u00a0 This after a grand beginning with some states, like Maryland, a predominantly Roman Catholic colony which\u00a0afforded toleration to Protestants in the Act Concerning Religion<\/em> in 1649.\u00a0 (There was no thought of toleration for atheists, Muslims, queers, etc.\u00a0 “If any of such\u00a0was your ‘religion,’ keep it in your quiet heart and, Lord Willing, you will come to know the Truth and His grace in the Savior.”)\u00a0\u00a0 The many varieties of (Protestant) Christians could find common ground with fellow Roman Catholics and Jews in the Law.\u00a0 They could together overlook ecclesiological differences, affirm together their common morality per Law and live as a people with fundamental matters of law in common.\u00a0 But in the past half century we have witnessed the\u00a0flagrant discard of even the pretense of acknowledgment of divine law in the civil arena:\u00a0 1) the First Commandment requiring acknowledgement of Him by the citizenry was abolished as per SCOTUS decrees 2) the law against murder was abolished (murderers are free to kill babies with impunity) thanks again\u00a0to SCOTUS, 3) the law forbidding theft is violated as a matter of course by a taxing government which requires more\u00a0than the Deity’s\u00a0tithe, 4) and now the law against sodomy has likewise been swept away by the same bench of Lawless tyrants.<\/p>\n If there is indeed Truth, then the contradiction of the same is known as Falsity.\u00a0\u00a0Nations\u00a0rule with one or the\u00a0other.\u00a0 They build\u00a0 with Truth as the foundation for their laws or with Falsity.\u00a0\u00a0 The former can be hard on Truth haters;\u00a0 The latter is hard on Truth lovers.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What we as communities, nations, and empires do with the Law affects the way we live among one another and the way God treats us as a nation, a state, a community.\u00a0 He judges nations in history, not just souls at the end of time.<\/p>\n The churches of God in their current state of absence from the political arena cannot avoid the coming consequences of that dereliction. There will be people related to members of their churches who will “marry” another member of the same sex.\u00a0 This perversity will assert itself forcefully to the point that there will be division fostered by those who want to “love” and “accept” the poor sinner who is also in “need of God’s grace.”<\/p>\n “How can we pass judgment?” will be the tiresome refrain.\u00a0 “Who are we<\/em> to judge?”\u00a0 (You are people with the very Law of God<\/span>!\u00a0 Exactly what the asinine judges of this world refuse to honor and obey!)<\/p>\n Those whose\u00a0flagrant deeds of perversion, which would normally call for confrontation, investigation and scorn, are\u00a0ignored \u00a0as if nothing were wrong.\u00a0 Nothing to be repented of and nothing to be forgiven.<\/p>\n “It was only weakness or immaturity or a genetically driven deviancy from the norm,” comes the popular reply.<\/p>\n Pardon us.\u00a0That was the excuse of\u00a0the last\u00a0<\/em>generation.\u00a0Not even that<\/em> excuse will satisfy the current polemic for perversion in\u00a0ever-more-contorted\u00a0modern<\/em> times;\u00a0 it is now\u00a0a total matter of sovereign choice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Indeed, it is rooted in\u00a0 one’s very “identity.”\u00a0 It underlies<\/em> choice.\u00a0People\u00a0now sovereignly\u00a0“identify as” one sex regardless of the particular corporeal parts they possess.\u00a0 Regardless of things like reality or\u00a0law.\u00a0 Total Godless sovereignty of the individual in due according to \u00a0whatever the State with its evolving citizenry allows.<\/p>\n Indeed, such a departure from fundamental principles of law and discipline will shake the churches of God as anti-Christ voices grow louder.\u00a0 The false voices for “grace” and “love” urging the churches of God to tolerate sin and withhold Biblical judgment and to refrain from “throwing the first stone” will prevail.\u00a0 And\u00a0such “churches” will fail in their duty to be the salt and the light of the world.<\/p>\n How do we expect a clerk in a Kentucky court to stand for\u00a0 the Law of the land when the churches of God do not stand for it?\u00a0 Let the churches of God arise from their slumber.\u00a0 Let those bound by their contract with the government (their 501.c.3 federal, no-talk-politics, tax-exempt\u00a0covenant with the United States) speak up without inhibition.<\/p>\n We already have had such a blasphemous “marriage” of two women, one to another, here in Clinton County, Ohio.\u00a0 I know of it not from inquiry but because I met the son, a pleasant fellow, in jail during my regular time of visitation of inmates.\u00a0 I have not investigated the matter to discover the number of such “nuptials” which may have been performed in our town.\u00a0 But I am heartily disappointed in the dearth of voices on the subject sounded by the churches of God.\u00a0\u00a0 They each have their pastors, their councils, their boards of elders.\u00a0 They have the means and platform\u00a0to issue public statements to the civil authorities and to the public at large making their voice of influence heard.\u00a0\u00a0 But they have chosen to keep their tails tucked between their legs and maintain silence.<\/p>\n The good news is that not only has the Almighty given Law, but He has sent His Spirit into the world.\u00a0 And His spirit revives and mobilizes His people according to His sovereign will.\u00a0\u00a0 Come, Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n I know a song taken from the words of\u00a0that great Psalm of the Law, no. 119 (vv. 97f.)<\/p>\n O how I love Your Law, My meditation And I do.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michael Bray 8 \u00a0September 2015 Since we have embarrassed God –\u00a0 no, slighted Him –\u00a0 no, offended Him\u00a0 by our selfish stupidity, observable among all the peoples –\u00a0we have a big problem. We have tolerated rather than prosecuted the practice of sexual perversion.\u00a0 Now, we who have refused to oppose evil will ourselves be opposed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,33,11,18,24,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character-or-not","category-civil-disobedience","category-defending-the-defenders","category-family-matters","category-polytheistic-statism-v-christocracy","category-wilmington-ohio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1954"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2398,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1954\/revisions\/2398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelbray.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI have more insight than all my teachers
\nI understand more than the aged
\nBecause I observed Your precepts
\nAnd restrained my feet from evil
\nTherefore I hate every false way.<\/p>\n