The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not intended to restrain the sins of nations.This is not it's purpose. Nor are we called upon as Christians to maintain the moral character of secular kingdoms. America is not the Israel of the OT of whom the prophets spoke to, nor is it a church. The world is wicked as are the nations of the world. The greatest idolatory of the ancient world was the worship of Artemis or Diana. None of the Apostles spoke against Artemis/Diana directly. They did not stand on the street corners and pronounce her to be false. They did however, speak to the general wickedness of idolatory. What is the sin of abortion? It is murder. And murder is clearly wrong. There have been 55 million abortions in this country alone. What does that mean? There are 55 million murderers walking the street most of them unrepentant. Political christians in the States like to blame politicians for the 55 million murders. Yet the politicians merely give the majority of people what they want. And what is that? Freedom. Yet the kind of freedom that many Americans idolize is a genie in a bottle. You release this kind of genie, and you create a society where personal freedoms are worshiped. And these worshiped freedoms have led to abortion on demand and gay marriage and worse to come. The root of all of this is the mistake by cultural Christians as to what it means to be free. We in the west worship our so called freedoms. We detest being told what we can and cannot do. It is ironic that the freedoms of men leads to lawlessness. Being free in Christ down through the ages typically leads to persecution and death. The apostles and Jesus always spoke to the root causes of problems. Man's rebellion against God leading to homosexuality, hatred in one's heart leading to war. Lust leading to adultery and all manner of sexual sin. Greed leading to all manner of worship of mammon. The issues of the heart and the true Gospel is what the man of God speaks to. True men of God are not afraid to speak the truth in love as led by the Holy Spirit. The religious man, like the Victorian England church-goer, will rail against the morality of society, the man of God will speak to the state of the Church. The world is and always has been wicked, it just had and has various states of morality which have little bearing on the Body of Christ.....bro FrankLuk 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, Luk 4:19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.Joh_3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Brethren I found the video to be a mixed blessing. As regards the gospel that was encouraging. But as regards speaking out against the national sins of abortion and homosexuality I heard culture. Somehow the cross got lost.My thoughts.Blaine
1 Cor. 5:12-13But what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. I find these verses insightful as Paul was preaching in one of the most depraved cities in the Roman empire. He apparently was not speaking out against the national sins of Corinth. But rather was leaving it for God to judge the corporate sins of Corinth.Yet Paul was quite clear on judging sin inside the church. In the context of the above verses a man has his father's wife. The Corthian church is proud if this. Paul calls them to account. They need to repent.I see a lesson here. It might behoove us to look to our own spiritual house and judge the sins inside the house. Thus repenting of those sins. Those outside the house God will judge.If anything it is the church that needs to repent of her sins. One sin being embroiled in the culture war and politics. Another sin is failure to love the homosexual and abortionist and speak to them of their need for Christ.My thoughts.Bearmaster.
The greatest idolatory of the ancient world was the worship of Artemis or Diana. None of the Apostles spoke against Artemis/Diana directly. They did not stand on the street corners and pronounce her to be false. They did however, speak to the general wickedness of idolatory.
_________________Oracio
Ontario were the early Christans martyred for speaking out against specific sins? Or for a witness of Jesus Christ?I believe it was their testimony of Jesus that sent the early Christans to the lions.Bear.
Just to be clear on something, I don't believe in focusing any one particular sin or people group, and I don't believe Franklin is encouraging that either. When I share the gospel and am at the part of mentioning specific sins I try not to focus on just one or two sins but try to mention various sins against God's Law. For example, when I'm mentioning sexual immorality I explain adultery both inward and outward, fornication, and homosexuality. When I mention murder I explain different types of murder both inward and outward, including abortion.The point Franklin Graham makes is that we must not shy away from calling sin sin out of fear of man.
bearmaster from the standpoint of the Roman empire they were martyred because they refused to acknowledge Caesar as their lord, and they were also hated because they did not acknowledge Diana as their goddess. They were seen as extremely unsocial in various aspects. They acknowledged no King but Christ.
it think you gyes are missing the context in wich the message was spoken in and clanging simbels ,,,,,if we want see the direct context ,,we see franklin is speaking to pasters and how they adress the congration ,,paul speaks directly about this and say we are to judge and point out the sin and call for repentence or excomunacate the sinner he is saying it is the coward that will not confront the sinners ,,,,,,,so to try and turn this into a calling out a nations sin wile not emphisising gosple ,is out of contex and realy is a non scence ,,and another issue that should be delt with as oraco said we do also see in scripture jesus confronting the sins of the lost regarding israel he spoke and condemded adultry out side the cotext of the chruch sinagog judging one another ,muder ,hate ,the bond of mariage, swearing oaths,,,,greed covertus ,, unbelief,,,,,false teachers ,,,and hipocracy and he preached the gosple of the kingdom and the death and the resarection ,,,,,,to say that the bible doest not teach that we dont need to point out sin when evanglising is to compleatly ignore how jesus preached as well as paul and peter and others to make an argument that just becasue paul did not mention dian when he pointed out the sin of idoarty and mars hill ,,,,,,,is like saying to someone who is evenglising they didnt point out the pasiphic sexaly perverted acts a fornaction does ,,wile preaching against fornacation,no one here is saying we need to confront sin in that way
wher does it say in the bible that it is a sin to be involved in politics,,,or trying to have a moral culture ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nomaly the people that say this are the same ones that winge and complain about how dark our culture is geting ,,theres no point in praying for revivle with this mind set becasue histoicaly it was acheaved partly through men who preached againsts the sins of a nation and the church ,,,,,,but typical this dark mind set comes from people who have made up there mind that god will not revive a nation like america ,,so they dont pray for a great havest in there own land ,,,showing the love they realy have for sinners is wanting ,,and this is what they are saying about the one who preaches againsts sin ,,that these lak love i see this as hipocracy ,,for lake of a better word ,,,maby another word is better to describeim not realy directing this at anyone in particular ,,it just what iv noticed
Brethren please consider once again 1 Cor.5:11-12,For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges.As previously posted the context of the above verses was sin in the church of Corith. Paul calls the church to judge that sin and deal with it. But another truth us expressed in the above verses. Paul does not see his mandate to speak out against cultural and national sins. He says God will judge such sins. As Apolous stated in his post Paul was not speaking out against the cultural sin of Ephesus in their worship of Diana. Indeed it was said by the town clerk in Acts 20:37 these men who have been brought here are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of our goddess. So does this mean Paul was a coward or afraid to speak the truth about sin? Was he giving approval to a cult? Of course not. Paul saw his commission to preach the gospel and call individuals to turn from their sins to God and have faith in Christ (Acts 20:21). On other words Paul called on individuals to repent and turn away from their sins and have faith in Jesus. Not societies or cities.No doubt Paul would engage individuals caught up in the cult of Diana to come out and believe in Jesus. But we do not see him blasting the entire cult itself and calling it false. We certainly do not hear of Paul holding up a sign outside of the temple of Diana saying those who worshipped there were going to hell.Our call, our commission is to engage individuals that God may bring our way to come out of their sins and come to Christ. But I do not see that we are to be prophets calling America itself to repentance. Those who believe such said God sent prophets to Israel. But Israel was a theocracy. In the New Covenant the prophet gives way to the evangelist who calls individuals to repent and come to Christ. Not nations. Indeed the Great Commission is incumbent upon all of us to preach the gospel. For Jesus came to call sinners to repentance. Not nations.Bearmaster.