Why Do Christians Disagree on Major Things (like POLITICS)? Part 1

OUTLINE:
Intro:
- when I was young I thought Christians were united on most of the major moral issues
- as I got older I realized that wasn't the case
- We need some objective evidence about the things we believe, to be sure they are not based on lazy thinking or our mere biases
- Can we dive down underneath our views to find out what makes those views?
- Some Christians don't resist evil because they have a theology that everything that happens must be God's will
- Some of those Christians might be helping to roll out the red carpet for the devil when he comes to eat our lunch (or eat our children)

The Two Commissions of Christ (or the Two Great Statements of Christ) should be the foundation for how we view the world (and how we see the thing we call "politics")
- These commissions are:
- be salt and light
- go into the world with the Gospel
We will talk about these more later, because they help undo the knot of our biases that ruin Christian unity and make us work against each other.

But there is a Bible principle even more fundamental that we should all agree on: FRUIT .

- If we are bond-slaves of Christ, our whole view of life should begin with the desire to bear fruit for the Master (John 15: 1-8)
- Is it possible that some of us "Christians" (in name) are not only NOT bearing good fruit, but actually bearing BAD fruit?
- If we produce bad fruit, we are worthless, in danger of being cursed, and in the end we will be "burned," Hebrews 6:8
- Many things are happening now in our culture, with abortion being the top example of this, that are attacking the children (64 million babies killed since 1973)
- If we don't "study (be diligent) to show ourselves approved unto God", we will fail to discern our times, and may be allowing, or even helping, God's enemies and thus producing bad fruit. (2 Timothy 2:15)
- Why were the people of Canaan targeted by God for special destruction? Because of their sacrifice of children! God destroyed them in Canaan through the children of Israel, and in Carthage (same people, different country) through the Romans.
- The children are being ravaged in our lifetime, on our watch -- are we offering any resistance?
- There are Christians who seem to think it muddies godliness and pure theology to even talk of anthing that could possibly be labeled political

Historical example: The conquering of Christian North Africa by Islam
Four Reactions by Christians to this invasion:
1) Conversion
2) Conciliation
3) Quiet protest
4) Loud protest (usuallty with martyrdom)

This is happening in our generation: we are being occupied by ideas that attack Christ. We are watching ...
1) Conversion: mainly through the schools :we are funding the schools to teach our kids to hate the things we love
2) Conciliation: Christians are joining groups that hate Christ, making alliances with them. This is not the same as being "salt and light" to those groups
3) Quiet protest: we begin to show real faithfulness to God; often very wise. But any protest is dangerous to our reputations and often our careers, so we don't protest a whole lot
4) Loud protest and martyrdom: this brings Persecution. This is happening to our brothers and sisters around the world; in the West, our martyrdom starts with our characters being attacked.

St. Paul gave Timothy a litmus test for godliness in (at least) a group of believers in a region: if they are not getting persecuted (ever), they may not be godly because "all who desire to live godly in Christ will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12)

During the time of COVID, we saw persecution against people who spoke against the agenda of the powerful. It's not merely being "Christian" that gets people persecuted: it's opposing the agenda of the powerful. Even for the early Christians in Rome, it was their political non-compliance that got them killed, not the mere fact that they were worshiped someone called "Christ".

REVIEW:
- We don't want to bear "thorns and thistles", we don't want to be cursed and burned. Rather, we want to produce good fruit!
- God has a tender love for children and children are being attacked hard by evil in our day.
- Do we fail to oppose those who are destroying children because of our politics, our bias, our theology?
- If we fail to oppose the Evil One destroying children, or even help him in some way, we are producing bad fruit.
- Are we ancient North Africa in our day, allowing darkness to come over our land, on our watch? (If so, we should repent!)

NEXT TIME:
There is a way for believers to go deeper than our bias and stop getting these things wrong, and stop believing things for flimsy reasons, and start being courageous and producing only good fruit -- and it's based on the biblical theme of Grace and Truth. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.