One of the things
the anti Christian crowd likes to do is antagonize Christians and then when the
Christians fight back or defend themselves in any way the anti's scream
"Hypocrite!
Hypocrite!"
Unfortunately that works to shut up a lot of Christians. It seems to me that they aren't heeding
Paul's warning.
Acts 20:25-31(NKJV)
25“And indeed, now I know that you all,
among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, will see my face no
more.
26Therefore I testify to you this day that
I am innocent of the blood of
all men.
27For I have not shunned to declare to you
the whole counsel of God.
28Therefore take heed to yourselves and to
all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd
the church £of God which He
purchased with His own blood.
29For I know this, that after my
departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock.
30Also from among yourselves men
will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after
themselves.
31Therefore watch, and remember
that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
We want to do all
that we can to bring people who are truly seeking to Christ. However I think Christians sometimes spend
way too much time trying to bring Satan to Christ.
What I mean by that
is there is a difference between someone who is seeking and someone who is
trying to sow discord and persuade people against accepting Christ and serving
God. I believe those are the type of
people Paul was referring to as "savage wolves". Here is an example of how Paul dealt with
people like that.
Acts 13:6-11(NKJV)
6Now when they had gone through £the island to Paphos, they found a certain
sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was
Bar-Jesus,
7who was with the proconsul, Sergius
Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas and Saul and sought to
hear the word of God.
8But Elymas the sorcerer (for so
his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from
the faith.
9Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy
Spirit, looked intently at him
10and said, “O full of all deceit
and all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease
perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
11And now, indeed, the hand of the
Lord is upon
you, and you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a
dark mist fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the
hand.
To put it another
way, Jesus used the analogy of the Shepard.
Is a Shepard going to sit there meekly and allow the wolf to destroy the
flock? Of course not! It just seems to me that sometimes
Christians, in an effort to bring everybody to Christ fail or refuse to
recognize the wolf when it appears.
Now there are some
who would say that deciding who is truly seeking and who is a "savage
wolf" is making a judgement and the Bible says we shouldn't judge.
I would suggest that
is an improper understanding of what judgement is. What does the Bible tell us about someone who
has rejected Jesus? They have declared
themselves an enemy of God. They have
stuck their hand in the air and said with their own free will that they are
rejecting God's free gift of salvation.
Recognizing that
fact doesn't require any judgement on my part what so ever. I am simply acknowledging the free will
choice that person has made.
There is Scripture
that I can't find right now where God seems to say stop wasting my resources on
those who have already chosen. Spend
your time and energy focusing on those who haven't heard yet.
I think that is kind
of what happens here. We spend too much
time trying to change peoples minds who have already made a choice. We are told that we shouldn't offend them so
that they feel free to come back. We
censor God's message to make it more "palatable" for those who have
already rejected Jesus.
I just think that is
a misuse of God's resources. I think we
need to recognize who we are dealing with and act accordingly. And stop spending so much time trying to save
Satan.