A World Upside Down

Many of you are aware that I deleted my original Facebook account a few months ago. It had become a source of mental distress for me that I simply didn’t need, especially now as I battle this insidious disease. A few weeks ago, I decided to create a new account for the express purpose of driving traffic to my blog with a secondary purpose being to keep up with the goings on in the lives of my friends who have Facebook accounts, something I had missed.

I can tell you, however, that there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t see a headline or read a post on Facebook that shocks me. There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t “hide” a post from a friend that I find morally offensive to me. There have been times that I have taken the step of unfriending someone, or I have exercised the less extreme option of unfollowing someone because of things they post that appear on my timeline that, again, are deeply offensive to me. Often the Facebook posts are memes circulated by people I never knew held the views the memes spelled out.

I have stated clearly, and I shall do so again, that I respect everyone’s right to believe whatever they wish. If someone’s beliefs differ from mine with regard to issues I hold as sacred, such as the right to life for the unborn or that marriage is defined as a holy union between one man and one woman, I won’t call that person names, and I won’t treat him or her any differently than I do those who believe as I do. I don’t hate them because of the beliefs they hold. But I refuse to be manipulated by false insinuations and innuendo, and I refuse to simply click a button to hide something offensive and not deal with lies by exposing them.

Most troubling of all are the comments I see from friends who call themselves Christians but espouse views that are not only in conflict with the Word of God they supposedly accept as true but also foment the current divisive environment in which we find ourselves. Unfortunately, I see the insults, name-calling, slurs, and invectives from both sides of the issues. I see manipulation, pure propaganda, and half-truths spouted by those who share falsehoods to try to silence others whose views they consider to be bigoted and obsolete. One doesn’t have to search or wait for long to see it. The first post I saw when I signed onto Facebook just yesterday was filled with such untruths.

One of the manipulative distortions I have seen recently stated, “If your God teaches you to hate, you need a new God.” It sounds like a reasonable statement, doesn’t it? When you read it, you may be struck with a feeling of shame at first, especially if there is anything in your life that you secretly hate, and you may tell yourself, I shouldn’t feel that way. God is love. God wants me to love everyone. God doesn’t want me to hate.

Let me ask you, have you read Psalms 97:10? It’s a short little verse with the words “love” and “hate” in the same sentence. The King James version reads, “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.”

Even God Himself hates evil, as we clearly read in Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV):

There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

I’ll keep my God, whom I love, thank you. He has taught me what evil is in this world. His Holy Spirit gives me discernment so that I can recognize it and stand against it. I will do so boldly and without fear because “God has not given me the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” II Timothy 1:7 (NKJV).

While it is our responsibility to understand what evil is and recognize it around us, Jesus tells us that we are to love even our enemies: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:43-44 (NIV).

The problem in our society today is that we don’t recognize evil anymore. I can’t begin to tell you how weary I am of all of it and the pain I feel deep in my soul for what is happening. It’s difficult for me to comprehend that so many are so lost. They think they are enlightened—I believe the new term for it now is “woke”—and that it is cretins like myself that are the problem.

Some of it comes from those in high public office, like Rashida Tlaib, United States Representative from Michigan, whose recent tweet advocated nothing short of anarchy in the wake of the Daunte Wright tragedy. (1) Such a woman was elected into our House of Representatives because there are few, if any, patriots who live in the district she represents in Michigan. It is a community of Muslims, many of whom share her radical views that are incompatible with our Constitution—with our very way of life—and have no place in a constitutional republic. This is yet another way that our world, at least here in the United States, is upside down.

How did we get here? Why is it happening? How are so many so easily deceived by the lies? How can so many be so convinced their view is the right one and anyone who believes differently is an extremist?

It has happened over time, slowly at first so we hardly noticed. Little by little, our values came under assault until the masses seem to have accepted that even the value of life itself is insignificant. Remember the bill introduced in 2019 by Virginia Democratic Delegate Kathy Tran allowing an abortion to take place after the birth of a baby? Democratic Governor Ralph Northam weighed in on the matter, sparking outrage with his support of the bill and his hypothetical description of how a severely deformed newborn might be left to die. Thankfully, the bill was defeated. (2)

God’s Word gives us an explanation in II Timothy 4:3-4 (NIV): “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

Without a common frame of reference, it is nearly impossible to reason with someone whose views are to the extreme of your own. It’s also impossible to present one’s side of any of a number of the highly controversial issues facing our society right now without the aforementioned invectives being hurled and the door of communication being slammed shut in one’s face. But I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that the day is coming when everyone will be compelled to take a stand, one way or the other, and it is coming sooner than later.

I have spoken of this common frame of reference before with friends and loved ones whose views are different from my own. When that friend or loved one professes himself or herself to be a Christian, one would think we would have a built-in common frame of reference, that is our belief that “All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction of sin, for correction of error and restoration to obedience, for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage].” I Timothy 3:16 (AMP). What I sometimes hear is the argument that the Bible can’t be trusted because men have meddled with it through the centuries and changed the meanings, interpreting it to suit their personal agendas. On that point, I have two responses. First, through faith I believe that God has preserved his Word throughout the ages so that the promise in I Timothy 3:16 remains solid today. Second, I challenge anyone to bring me examples of any of the eternal truths espoused in the Holy Bible that have changed through the ages with different translations or iterations of the scriptures. You and I might read a story or historical account in the Bible and grasp different perspectives, but I have never experienced a perspective that changed the moral lesson at the root of the story. Some might argue that human beings have changed. Morality isn’t the same now as it was all those centuries ago when Jesus and His apostles walked among us. I would agree that our acceptance of what is moral and what is not has changed, but human beings have not changed, neither has the Word of God or the eternal truths contained within it. We may have evolved technologically, but I believe that as created beings, made in the very image of God, we function best within the parameters established for us by our Creator. It is when we attempt to redefine those parameters that everything goes to hell in a handbasket, as we see playing out in our society today.

I have subscribed to a daily briefing published by Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, for several years now. “The Briefing” frequently includes news articles from various well-known newspapers and organizations along with his responses based on a “Christian worldview.” I admire his boldness in speaking the truth through the scriptures and find his podcasts and his written articles to be insightful and thought-provoking. In recent months, he repeats a message that I included in this post; that is, that the day is coming when each of us will be compelled to take a stand. It’s a very uncomfortable proposition. Many of us work for companies that have bowed to radical fringe groups, many of which are tied to the looting and destruction of businesses and communities

in some of our cities. (3)(4) We dare not speak of our beliefs or make it known that our biblical views are in opposition to much of what our employer vociferously advocates. Even now, as our Constitutional rights are under siege, I feel compelled to speak out before doing so becomes illegal. Even more than that, I do so because to stay silent has grown more uncomfortable to me than speaking out.

These words of Albert Mohler from his 14 April, 2021 “The Briefing,” reflect my feelings perfectly:

“As we come to an end for The Briefing today, we just need to recognize with very somber hearts, the reality that we are in a society that is at war with the most basic principles of human rights and human dignity, even with reality itself. We are surrounded by a civilization trying to convince itself that two men can have a baby, trying to convince itself that newly devised artificial rights, actually now trump established rights, such as religious liberty. We are looking at the fact that conservative Christians are here described as extremists. And those who affirm the moral revolution are just now considered as normal.

“If nothing else, what this means for Christians is that we've got to do a lot of truth-telling to the world, yes, but also to ourselves. That truth-telling has to begin in our own homes and in our own churches if we're going to be taken seriously anywhere else.” (5)

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References

(1) Vallejo, Justin. 2021. Review of Rashida Tlaib Calls for “No More Police” Following

Daunte Wright Shooting. Edited by The Independent. Yahoo News. April 13, 2021.

https://news.yahoo.com/rashida-tlaib-calls-no-more-221355507.html (2) Griffith, Keith. 2019. “Virginia Governor under Fire for Endorsing ‘Post-Birth Abortion.’”

Mail Online. January 30, 2019. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6650299/Sarah-Palin-leads-outrage-Virginia-abortion-bill-sponsor-proposed-termination-BIRTH.html (3) Director, Kyle ShidelerKyle Shideler is the, Senior Analyst for Homel, Security,

Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy Mr Shideler specializes in Islamist

groups operating in the United States, Having Spent Over a Decade Researching,

Writing on Their History, and doctrine. 2021. “Situation Report: Antifa/BLM Riots

Continue in Minneapolis and Portland.” Center for Security Policy. April 12, 2021. https://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2021/04/12/situation-report-antifa-blm-riots-continue-in-minneapolis-and-portland/ (4) Farivar, Masood. 2020. Review of Anarchist Groups Tied to Riots in 4 US Cities. Voice of

America (VOA). September 16, 2020. https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/anarchist-groups-tied-riots-4-us-cities. (5) Mohler, Albert. 2021. Review of The Briefing. Edited by Albert Mohler.

www.albertmohler.com. April 14, 2021. https://albertmohler.com/2021/04/14/briefing-4-14.