© 2018 Don Pinson | [Download]
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Have you ever asked yourself the question: “Why is there so much confusion in the world about Who God is?” Let’s answer that by reading more of the book, Why God Birthed America. I quote from the section about the Dark Ages:
“Satan had always wanted control. His attempt to take over God’s throne in heaven was the very reason he was cast down from his original position as the worship leader of heaven (Ezekiel 28:10-16). Once he was defeated in his attempt to gain control of heaven, the next best thing he could do was to try to gain control of earth. Given the rule of earth by Adam, its God-ordained master, satan had rapidly entrenched his deceptive ideas in earthly governments. Since civil government is the greatest natural power among men, government was Satan’s greatest opportunity to control the masses; and keep them in the bondage of deception. But he knew if this message that Christ could dwell in, and live His life through a human, was allowed to spread, the truth would overthrow his rule in earthly governments. If mankind ever discovered that the original Legislator, Judge, and Executive (Isaiah 33:22) could live inside them, they would then discover that they, the people, were the rightful authority for, and the best source of, government on this earth. Satan could never allow this to happen!
“He first tried to stop this movement with persecution. He used the Roman government to mercilessly mistreat Christians, eventually making them the hunted prey of hungry lions. It became great sport to Roman citizens to fill the Coliseum and watch Christians torn limb from limb in these horrendous events. Satan’s strategy was to stamp out this Christian movement by saying to all who viewed, “This is not worth it. Don’t become a Christian!”
“But just the opposite happened. The more Christians laid down their lives, forgiving those who were working their death, the more others admired them. In turn, many of them gave their lives to Christ. They acknowledged that they too wanted a cause worth dying for. And this was more than a cause: This relationship with God was the very reason they had been created. The selflessness of the martyrs testified to them that Jesus was alive in them—that He could walk inside one even in “the valley of the shadow of death” (Psalms 23:4). Satan’s persecution of the church simply caused it to grow. He found himself being used by God to achieve the very purposes of the Almighty! How frustrating to fight against the Sovereign God!
“When persecution didn’t work, he resorted to his old tactics. Satan has always been the master of deceit. From Eden he’s tried to convince man that God is not trustworthy. He has constantly tried to make us believe that God does not have our best interest at heart.
“He again mixed error with the truth, convincing church leaders that they too were being “short-changed”. The church was missing the help of a lot of “good” people by insisting all had to repent. He suggested to them God’s way was too exclusive: It wasn’t right to insist that people repent of their attitude toward God in order to be a part of the church. That was too harsh. They should try to include everybody. After all, didn’t God create us all? Are we not all brothers? It was bigotry to insist that only those who were born again were part of the Body of Christ in the earth.”
And thus, the church compromised the truth; bringing on all the miseries and evils since that decision. Have you tried to change the truth because you didn’t want to repent?
Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children! And you won’t like what that brings to you. I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.