Back to Basics - of the Gospel

Why dilute the Gospel? Afraid of losing the audience, facing rejection, opposition, even persecution? This is how John the Baptist introduced the ministry of Jesus.

"I baptize you with water; but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am - so much greater that I'm not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He is ready to separate the chaff from the wheat with his winnowing fork. Then he will clean up the threshing area, gathering the wheat into his barn but burning the chaff with never-ending fire. John used many such warnings as he announced the Good News.”
(Luke 3:16-18 NLT)

That's quite an introduction. I’m not sure that would go over very well among some evangelicals today. Evidently judgement for rejecting the Good News is part of the Good News.

Jesus, “filled with the Holy Spirit’s power,” preached his first sermon from Isaiah chapter 61 in his hometown of Nazareth. His audience was "amazed at his gracious words" and spoke "well of him." However when he exposed their unbelief, they were infuriated and mobbed him in an attempt to kill him. (Luke 4:16-30)

Speaking the truth graciously does not preclude violent opposition to the message, or the messenger. Jesus felt no need to modify the Good News to make it more appealing. He evidently did not embrace a "seeker sensitive” strategy.

A few chapters later Jesus responded to a news report that Pilate had murdered worshippers in the Temple, with this message.

"Did you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?...Is that why they suffered? Not at all! And, you will perish, too, unless you repent and turn to God” (Luke 13:2,3 NLT)

The focus of evangelism should be on communicating the whole gospel, Good News that includes repentance or judgment for rejecting the Good News. After all the fruit of evangelism depends on the work of the God, not man.

“...no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them up.” (John 6:44 NLT)

The success of gospel proclamation has far more to do with the evangelist being “full of the Holy Spirit” (Luke 4:1) than personality, prominence, prestige, dressing down (or up) or any other attempts to be “culturally relevant.” Spirit empowered evangelism has no fear of proclaiming God’s judgment of unbelief.

The Apostle Paul’s testimony parallels Jesus’ example,

“The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the power of God...But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
(1 Corinthians 1:18,24 NLT)

“...my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.”
(1 Corinthians 2:4 NLT)

You know the results.

Discerning the Times

The "men of Issachar...understood the times and knew what Israel should do."1 Chronicles 12:32 NLT

"Your eye is the lamp that provides light to your body. When you eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness." Luke 11:34 NLT

Who is shaping your worldview? Your worldview determines most every choice you make - your personal morality and values, how you treat others, your politics, your economic policy, sense of social justice, etc.

Who has your eye? To whom do you look for truth? Who is influencing you? To change the metaphor, to whose voice have you given your ear - the Word of God and those with a Christian worldview who apply Biblical truth to life issues?

Or is the "light" you allow into your life coming from the secular humanist worldview that dominates our political, business, educational, entertainment and news media? Or perhaps from those "spiritual" leaders who are in fact "...false prophets...disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves?" Matthew 7:15 NLT

We have been warned.

"Make sure that the light you have is not actually darkness." Luke 11:35 NLT

The "Lesser of Evil"

Then Presidential candidate, Dr. Alan Keyes, was in Pompano Beach Florida back in the Fall of 2008 to speak at the memorial service for Baby Shanice Osbourne, the child, who surviving an abortion in Dade County, was subsequently murdered by the abortion clinic owner. I had the privilege to bring a brief message just before Dr. Keyes spoke.

That occasion and the internment of Baby Shanice that followed, afforded me the the opportunity to spend time with Dr. Keyes. I was so impressed with his personal faith, integrity and passion for righteousness. He is a man of principle, an uncompromising advocate of applying Biblical truth to our participation in the the political process.

In our time together he tutored me on the fallacies of “voting for the lesser of two evils,” the premise widely advocated by many evangelicals in the presidential race between the two leading contenders, John McCain and Barack Obama. A vote for Dr. Keyes, it was argued, was a wasted vote.

Dr. Keyes pointed out that if all Christians would vote for a candidate who represented Christian values, like himself, the votes were there to elect such a candidate to the White House instead settling for “the lesser of two evils.”

Four years later, we are hearing the same argument now that the two primary candidates in the 2012 presidential election will be President Obama vs. the presumptive GOP candidate Mitt Romney.

In his speech at the Rally for Common Sense in Missouri on May 19, 2012,Dr. Keyes exposed the fallacy of the “lesser evil” premise. Here are some excerpts from his speech. You can watch the 32 minute address on YouTube below. He says,

“The problem with voting for the lesser evil is that when the smoke clears, you are still being ruled by evil...The lesser of evils is evil still.

“The problem with voting for the lesser evils is that you then hand the standard for your vote to the evil side. And if they want you to get really evil they will simply find and put up the most obvious and apparent and deep died wickedness they can contrive. And when you vote for the lesser of evil you’ll be voting for the just about the most deep died wickedness you can find but it will be the lesser evil.

“...the one thing you can be certain of if you have no choice but evil, is that you have left the Kingdom of God...When your only choice for rulership is Satan and Beelzebub, you better wake up and smell the sulphur, cause your know where you are.

“Now you tell me, how many more times are you going to accept it. How many times are you going to take the next step and the next step and the next step, deeper into that kingdom where evil rules and you are no longer represented. The problem with voting for choices that don’t represent you is that it doesn’t
take long before you get a government that doesn’t represent you and that’s what you have now.”

“We have finally come to the crisis no leader will rescue us, no party will rescue us. The only thing that can save this nation now is the people themselves encouraged by their faith in God and unwilling to give up the courage that that faith brings.”

As the intro to the video says, Dr. Keyes, also “...spoke about the need to be honest with ourselves about the problems now confronting America and how the Republican and Democrat parties collude to further the interests of the elite establishment.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DttIgQpyUsA

The Deception of Choice - Hell Is Here!

Addressing the marchers at the pro-life “March on Washington” in 1977, pro-life civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson said,

“There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of [a] higher order than the right to life,…that was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned. What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person and what kind of a society will we have 20 years hence if life can be taken so casually? It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind. Failure to answer that question affirmatively may leave us with a hell right here on earth.”

Well, hell is here! The civil rights of over 3,300 aborted unborn babies are violated each day in the USA. The tragedy of Jesse Jackson's words as a Black "civil rights" leader, is that over 1,200 of them are African American children. In fact 16 million Black babies have died since 1973, some of them, apparently with the consent of now pro-abortion Jackson.

In fact abortion's impact on the Black community is genocidal - black death now outpaces black life. In New York City, for example, in 2010 there were 27,405 non-Hispanic black live births and 40,798 non-Hispanic black abortions. That's a Black life deficit of 13,393 - a 60% abortion rate.
(Bureau of Vital Statistics, New York City, Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene December 2010)


Rev. Jesse Jackson abandoned his pro-life position when he decided to run for president as a Democrat a number of years later. If the pro-life Jesse Jackson of 1977, were to debate the now pro-abortion (or "pro-choice" as they prefer to be called) Jesse Jackson of 2012, the latter would no doubt be squirming - for obvious reasons.

Deception can lead us to embrace what might be personally or politically expedient, but it can never change the truth.

America's Abortion Crisis

(The following is an edited version of the message I gave at the January 21, 2011 Rally for Life outside of the U.S. Federal Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale Florida. The event was sponsored by Broward County Right to Life Foundation. I serve on their Board of Directors.)

In Psalm 106 we read the Psalmist’s account of Israel’s involvement with child sacrifice. ”They did not destroy the peoples as the Lord had commanded them, but they mingled with the nations and adopted their customs. They worshiped their idols, which became a snare to them. They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was desecrated by their blood. They defiled themselves by what they did; by their deeds they prostituted themselves.” (Psalm 106:34-39 NIV)

There is a distinct parallel between Molech worship and abortion. First of all, abortion is the “sacrifice” of the unborn. “They sacrificed their sons and their daughters.” Secondly, the unborn are our sons and daughters – our family. Thirdly, abortion sheds innocent blood. Fourthly, the innocent blood of the aborted is sacrificed to demons. And, lastly, the blood of the aborted desecrates the land.

Jeremiah records God’s response to the shedding of innocent blood, “…they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children. They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing! (Jeremiah 19:4-5 NLT).

Michael Spielman, founder of abort73.com says, “This is a stunning statement to come from the mouth of a sovereign and all-knowing God!” Then he makes this statement, followed by a question, “The domestication of abortion has made it tragically commonplace, so much so that we seem to have lost our ability to be outraged by it. How is it that even we who oppose abortion are not more overwhelmed by the fact that it is legal, in the United States of America, to tear apart the tiny bodies of helpless unborn children?”

That is a question the church must answer. In 2009 almost 13,000 babies were killed by abortion in Broward County – about 82,000 statewide. God wasn’t caught by surprise by the sin of His people. Rather these words reflect His horror and dismay in response to the shedding of innocent blood.

How should we respond to America’s abortion crisis? I believe that Satan is the Architect of abortion (John 8:44); that abortion is a Satanic enterprise. Therefore, I believe the church is the only institution (or organism) that is spiritually equipped to engage the satanic forces behind abortion. Therefore, the church must take the lead in the efforts to end abortion.

Flip Benham, Director Operation Save America, in a statement released yesterday, said, “Abortion will come to an end, when the Church of Jesus Christ makes up her mind it will come to an end – not a second sooner. The responsibility for ending abortion in America rests squarely upon the shoulders of the Church of Jesus Christ.” Rev. Benham is right. The question is – what will it take for the church to fulfill its role in ending abortion? Let make four suggestions.

First of all the church must repent of abortion in the church. Several years ago Pastor John Ensor of HeartBeat International, speaking to a group of pastors in Davie reminded us that if Christians would stop having abortions, abortion clinics would close. Why? Because, 43% women having abortions identify themselves as Protestant; 27% women as Roman Catholic (AGI, “In Brief” July, 2008); and one in six of women who have an abortion are evangelical Christians (A. Guttmacher Institute.) In other words, in America about 70% of the women aborting their children identify themselves as either Protestant or Catholic. How can this be?

Secondly, Christian pastors must repent for the silence of the pulpit. In Leviticus 20 Moses warned the people of Israel about following their pagan neighbors in sacrificing their children to the demon god Molech. But there was another warning as well. He warned them against looking the other way. When others in the community sacrificed their children, “If the people of the community close their eyes when that man gives one of his children to Molech and they fail to put him to death, I will set my face against that man and his family and will cut off from their people both him and all who follow in prostituting themselves to Molech.” (Leviticus 20:4-5 NIV)

Three things happen when pastors refuse to speak about abortion. First of all, women in the church continue to abort their children. Secondly, the post-abortive continue to live in unresolved shame and guilt. Thirdly, the church fails to fulfill the role that it alone can have in bringing abortion to an end, including providing practical and compassionate help to those at risk for abortion.

Why then the silence? Mississippi African Methodist Episcopal Pastor Joseph Parker has said, “Too many pastors and spiritual leaders have been silent or quiet about the…abortion issue too long due to fear or ignorance and some due to political ties and commitments.”

The American pulpit fears man more than God. I am afraid that many of America’s pastors remain silent because it might conflict with another agenda, their prominence, popularity, prestige, and power. They fear the man and woman in the pew. They fear the scorn, ridicule and criticism of the world. Some of them fear how it will affect their political allegiance or party loyalties.

Listen to these words from a pastor, “The church must be reminded that it is not the master or the servant of the state, but rather the CONSCIENCE of the state. It must be the GUIDE and the CRITIC of the state, and never its TOOL. If the church does not recapture its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club without moral or spiritual authority.” Was he speaking of today’s church? Perhaps prophetically. It was written by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (emphasis mine “Strength To Love”) published in 1963. He was assassinated five years later.

Another pastor wrote, “The church is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus Christ. The church must confess that she has desired security and peace, quiet, possession, and honor to which she has no right. She has not born witness to the truth of God and by her silence, she has rendered herself guilty, because of her unwillingness to suffer for what she knows to be right.” I fear that those words describe the twenty-fist century American Church.

Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote those words from a prison cell in 1940 – five years later the Nazis hung him naked with a piano wire in a German concentration camp. Speaking the truth in love often comes at a price. Redemption has always come by way of sacrifice.

Thirdly, Christians must repent of their support of politicians, judges, officials and institutions that support and promote the killing of the unborn. In Psalm 94:20-21 (ESV), the Psalmist asks God this rhetorical question; “Can wicked rulers (throne of iniquity NKJV) be allied with you, those who frame injustice by statute? They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.” Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton legalized wickedness! Christians cannot in good conscience support legislation, court rulings or politicians that support the killing of the unborn. How do you explain the fact that in the 2010 general election one in four Evangelicals and one of every two Roman Catholics voted for a radically pro-abortion presidential candidate? Could it be related to the silence of the pulpit?

Fourthly, pray for God’s mercy. Remember Psalm 106 that spoke of the sacrifice of children to Molech? Listen to what followed the verses I read at the outset of this message: “Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power.” (Psalm 106:40-42 NIV)

It is foolish for us to believe that America will not face God’s judgment for the slaughter of the unborn. I believe that we are under His judgment as we speak. Only a small remnant of the church (like those here today) are responding appropriately to the abortion holocaust. The church has largely remained silent, immobilized by its own self- indulgence and fear of persecution and public opinion. By its neglect, the Church is leading this nation in turning its back on God’s truth and His warning of judgment.

In his book, Answering the Call, Pastor John Ensor writes, “Because God loves, and he gets angry. Because he cherishes innocent human life with a burning heart and commands all men everywhere to do the same, his revulsion at the murder of innocents knows no limit, nor does His wrath when it is finally unleashed….For God to warn us of His wrath is another sign of His love. For us to ignore it is a sign of how hardened we have become and how ripe we are to receive His wrath.”

Ultimately, the gospel of Jesus Christ it the solution to America’s abortion crisis. Innocent blood has polluted the land and profaned the name of the Lord. But there is a greater blood shed at Mount Calvary that can transform the heart of a mother so she will choose life for her child that can cleanse the guilty, forgive, heal and restore those involved in abortion. What America needs to hear is God’s truth about abortion wrapped in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God always responds to repentance. Psalm 106 ends on a note of revival. As God’s people turned to the Lord, He heard their cry and verse 45 says, “…for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented.” (NIV)

Church we can win this battle! Christ has won the victory! “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10 NIV) “…having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians. 2:15 NIV) “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV)

Dr. Herb Lusk II, is the pastor of an African American church in an abortion clinic infested neighborhood in Philadelphia. His church opened a pregnancy resource center shortly before he spoke at CarNet’s annual conference in October 2008. He said, “If you don’t do anything about the horrors of abortion you’re not part of the solution, which means that you’re part of the problem…as long as a baby is in danger we’re in war. As long as the life of one infant is threatened, the war rages on.” May God help us and God bless America.

History Does Repeat Itself

Israel slaughtered their children by placing them alive on the outstretched arms of the demon god Molech (Psalm 106:37) where the child fell into a burning inferno in the belly of the idol. God's reaction was recorded by Jeremiah:

"...they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children...They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin." (Jeremiah 19:4, 32:35) 

Michael Spielman, founder of www.abort73.com, makes this comment,

"This is a stunning statement to come from the mouth of a sovereign and all-knowing God!...The domestication of abortion has made it tragically common place so much so that we seem to have lost our ability to be outraged by it. How is is that even we who oppose abortion are not more overwhelmed by the fact that it is legal, in the United States of America, to tear apart the tiny bodies of helpless unborn children." ("A Biblical Mandate to do Something About Abortion")

There is a distinct parallel between child sacrifice to Molech and abortion. Rev. Thomas Euteneuer draws the connection when he writes,

"The spiritual dimension of...[abortion]...is its systematizing of ritual blood sacrifice to the god of child murder, Moloch...This demon of murder appears in many forms and cultures through history (Phoenician, Carthaginian, Canaanite, Celt, Indian, Aztec and others) but is always the same bloodthirsty beast that demands the killing of children as his form or worship.

“This demon is not content with a single act of murder here and there. His insatiable appetite for the death of innocents seeks public endorsement to justify his gruesome deeds, and he needs a systematic expression of it to increase his worship. The modern abortion industry offers ritual blood sacrifice to the ancient abortion demon. it is in every way a demonic religion.

May I suggest the Church, either by benign neglect or by design, has failed to recognize  and or acknowledge the spiritual context in which one must place abortion in response to the Biblical evidence. Abortion is a satanic enterprise (John 8:44, 10:10) and our failure to acknowledge this fact has contributed to the silence, and at best, marginal response of the Church to America’s abortion crisis.

If abortion is demonic, there is only one conclusion for the Church. The Body of Christ, the Church, is the only organism (institution) spiritually equipped to engage the satanic forces behind abortion. Therefore the Church must take the lead in the effort to end abortion.

It is also noteworthy that God claimed the children sacrificed to Molech belonged to Him.

"And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore TO ME and sacrificed them as food to the dols...You slaughtered MY children and sacrificed them to idols." 
(Ezekiel 16:20-21 emphasis mine) 

I believe that one reason even those in the pro-life Church, in the words of Spielman, "...seem to have lost our ability to be outraged” by the ritual sacrifice of the unborn in America today, is that we have failed to acknowledge God’s view of the shedding of innocent blood of HIS children. His words, recorded by Ezekiel convey his sentiments. We do well to consider them.

Psalm 106 records the inevitable response of God to the shedding of innocent blood to Molech,

“Therefore the Lord was angry with his people and abhorred his inheritance. He handed them over to the nations, and their foes ruled over them. Their enemies oppressed them and subjected them to their power.” (Psalm 106:40-42) 

You can read Jeremiah’s prophecy of the gruesome siege of Jerusalem in chapter 19 of the book of Jeremiah.

Lou Engle draws this sobering conclusion from the Biblical record,

“Blood pollution comes on the land when innocent blood is shed. That sacrificing of babies is fueling the demonization of our nation. A day of reckoning is coming to USA without God’s mercy and through intercessors and action to stop abortion.”

History has warned us. History does repeat itself.

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Mothers - labor on!

In my opinion, there is no job more valuable nor important than mothers who make birthing, caring, nurturing, educating and raising their children their first priority. The energy and sacrifice required to fulfill that task is inestimable. The mother-child relationship provides the first experience of sacrificial love in the child's development. Other than the Father's gift of His Son Jesus Christ for our salvation, children are the most precious gift we have from the Lord. "Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward." (Psalm 127:3 ESV) Children belong to God, in whose image they have been created and the mother's care of them and sacrifice for them does not go unnoticed by the Lord. Mothers - labor on! Don't let the voices of ignorance, deceived by the evil one, undermine your commitment to your family. They have been been blinded by the god of this world. They and those who embrace their ideology need the truth of the gospel.