The tourniquet of tolerance has been put around the throats of the American people and it is being slowly tightened by the hand of Political correctness until the voice of truth is silenced and the voice of grace is made pointless. The voice of truth that is being silenced is the truth concerning sin, the truth that we are dead in our sin and the truth that Jesus came to free us from the penalty, power and presence of sin  And without the preaching of the truth of sin the preaching of the God’s grace for the forgiveness of sin is pointless.

This is a serious issue.  Can God’s grace save a person where there is no acknowledgement of sin or repentance from sin?  Why does someone need to saved by God’s grace, if there is no sin to be saved from?  If I’m OK and you’re OK, why did the Son of God have to die?  And what is the message of the cross, if it is not the message of what our sin has done?  What does it mean to believe in Jesus for eternal life?  Isn’t it a historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead so how does my believing this fact give me eternal life?  I believe that Neil Armstrong walked on the moon but that doesn’t make me an astronaut.  Doesn’t God love me enough to want to be with Him forever, regardless of what I believe about Jesus?  These are the stream of unanswerable questions that flood the soul when you fail to mention the truth about sin.  The fact of the matter is that you can’t explain our need for forgiveness and eternal life unless you explain our condition of sin and the penalty of death that we are due because of sin.  Moreover, without the voice of truth to explain our current condition of sin, the voice of God’s grace falls silently like snowflakes, saving no one but merely covering up the bodies of those who lay dead in their sin.

God’s amazing grace means that a born again Christian gets what they don’t deserve.  Instead of death, they get eternal life in Jesus Christ when they repent from their sin and believe that Christ paid for their sin.  But how can a person understand the gift of God’s saving grace unless that person understands the truth about the death penalty due them because of their sin?  And if I only told you the truth about your sin and that you were dead in your sin and due the punishment of death but failed to mention the saving grace of Jesus Christ, I would be keeping you imprisoned to your sin.  For this reason, both grace and truth are needed to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ.

Grace without Truth is pointless and Truth without Grace is bondage.

I am not a political advocate because political opinions do not have the gift of eternal life.  Only God has the gift of eternal life and freely offers it by believing in His Son, Jesus.  And it is God who provides us our daily bread not the government.  As a matter of fact God gives a government the authority to rule a nation and that nation has to answer to God for how it rules.  A government that acknowledges the truth of God, rules by the righteousness of God and does the will of God is a wonderful thing.  This is what we will have when Christ rules on earth during the Millennium.  And it will be even more wonderful when only resurrected believers, free from sin, populate the new heaven and earth.  But, I am not suggesting that we empower the government to force everybody to become a Christian.  You can’t force a person to understand God’s love for them and what is best for them.  The age old of saying is true, “a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still” .  What I am talking about is that the American people need to vote for Godly government leaders to enact and enforce laws based on the Christian morals and values of the Bible.  And we as Christians need to obey these laws.  That is what God wants and that is what our founding fathers believed and that is what is best for this nation and every nation.  We also need to honor the first amendment by fostering freedom of speech, using a loving dialog to discuss issues and seek the truth.

The problem with government is that it is made up of people and people are sinful, therefore the evil in men’s heart is exposed as they govern.  The Republicans offer welfare for the rich, with bail outs and amnesty for big business crooks and the Democrats offer welfare for the poor, in approving and financing those those who are unwilling to work.  And because both sides of the isle have corrupt agendas, I find it hard to exercise my Christian duty to vote.  However, on the issues of morality, in my opinion the Republicans promote more Christian virtues than the Democrats, even if they don’t practice them.  The bottom line is that is makes no difference if an unsaved person is conservative, liberal or completely disengaged from politics because without repentance from sin and salvation in Jesus Christ from sin, that person will spend eternity separated from God, forever tormented by their sin.  That is about all I have to say about politics.

The point I am making is that in the name of “tolerance” every voice can speak except the voice of truth of Christ.  If I say that certain behavior is a sin and that God will judge that person for committing the sin unless he repents and is saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, I am called intolerant of that person by our government.  Words that speak the truth about sin are now called “hate” speech in the eyes of the government.  Even some Christian churches are compromising with truth of the Bible concerning sin in order to be politically correct and get along with the world.  But God is not mocked.  God’s opinion concerning sin has not changed and the message of the gospel has not changed.  In God’s eyes, I am being a loving Christian, speaking the truth in in love when I speak about the death and destruction of sin and I speak about God’s saving power to overcome sin.  But to the government I am a trouble maker, trying to create hate and discontent with my fellow man.  How did we end up so far from where we began?  America unfortunately is no better than any other nation that has risen in statue based on righteous virtues and moral practices and then fallen based on human reasoning and the tolerance of sin.

And then again, why should I be surprised that the government now calls me a rebel, that is what the government called Jesus and I’m His disciple.  The early church was persecuted and told to be silent concerning this man Jesus.  The more the Christians were persecuted and killed for their faith in Christ, the more the church grew in numbers and in true Godly power.  And this same storm of persecution of God’s people is occurring today, in many places in the world and it is likely that it will come here, unless God grants American a revival or raptures His church and takes us home.  Regardless, we serve Christ and know His will is best.  We can not be separated from Christ but only drawn closer to Him by suffering for His righteousness.  And if you talk to Christians in other countries that are undergoing persecution today, this is their attitude.  They do not want us to pray for the persecution to stop but for strength and boldness to proclaim the saving truth of Christ so their enemy can be saved.  They pray that those who persecute them will be like Saul who was converted on the road to Damascus and became “Paul” the greatest disciple of Christ.

Jesus came to wake the world up and turn it upside down, in order that it could be saved from sin.  The world can continue to tighten the tourniquet of tolerance but God is not mocked by man’s rebellion or his foolish attempt to hide the truth of sin.  In fact, for this reason, Jesus is coming soon to judge the world.  And even as the world builds it’s religion of tolerance and a New World Order of peace, Christians need to be the voice of the one crying in the wilderness is heard, “Make straight the way of the Lord”.

+8^) Rogersings

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