Over at Dan's place, a discussion was brewing about what duty Christians are to perform.
Dan and some others suggest "working for peace, and righting social injustices."
I and others contended, that our responsibility lies in soul winning, PRIMARILY. Change the heart [that's BibleSpeak for "soul"], and you change minds. Change enough people's minds and hearts and Peace and Social Injustices take care of themselves.
Our responsibility toward the Gospel is as Jesus related to the pharisees in Matthew 21:28-31
What think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not. Whether of them twain did the will of his father?
We are to work in our father's vineyards. And what does that work entail? Bringing in a harvest? In terms of what you can expect for failing to work in the vineyard, Ezekiel 3:18 speaks volumes:
When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
If you stand before God as a blood bought child of God with the blood of the wicked on your hands will you lose your salvation? Absolutely not. But you may very well lose rewards, and stand ashamed before His throne.
9 Comments:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
We all are going to be ashamed by our commissions -- but more by our omissions! I don't hide the fact that I'm a Christian and I will, and do, talk to anybody about it, anytime. I'm sure you do likewise. On the door-to-door thing: Eh, been there, done that.
How do you support social justice efforts?
Those who civil rights or human rights are denied or denigrated.
Those are the ones that come immediately to mind and are most important to me personally.
And working -- or contributing monetarily, and politically, to cause changes the systems that cause or allow them.
I can't agree more, Ben. The problem there, as I see it, is not so much a reason for changing the gospel from one thing, i.e., salvation from the penalty of sin, as it is the natural response of love because one calls himself Christian.
Speaking directly to the quote I pulled from your comment, the primary reason this is happening is because we, as Americans, have allowed the "powers that be" to usurp the authority that is ours by right. Namely the right to govern ourselves. It's not just corporations, it's first and foremost, Congress; and Media and Education and the Lobby Industry. To quote the man for whom I intend to vote, Mr. Alan Keyes:
"During the past several decades, the trend in American life and politics has been adverse to just about everything needed to sustain American liberty. In our intellectual life, we have embraced theories and concepts that are simply incompatible with the ideas of human equality and inalienable rights that shaped our institutions of self-government. In the moral realm, we have legitimized attitudes and practices incompatible with the self-reliance and self-discipline that make limited government practicable. We have lived with policies on taxation and our economic life that destroy the rights, self-sufficiency, and initiative of the people. We have thoughtlessly adopted--and allowed our elites to implement--an understanding of political life that destructively erodes the sovereignty of the people.
"The end result is a crisis so pervasive that our preoccupation with its many symptoms and manifestations keeps us from appreciating its overall extent."
We the people no longer run this country. We are governed by an elite class. And the price of admission is money, and adherence to and loyalty for the party and its rules and traditions. "The Party," a la "Shades of Communism."
The Democrat primaries are a prime example. This election, for Democrats, has been spoiled for voters because of Florida and Michigan. Because they will not be seated neither Barack NOR Hillary will have enough delegates to win. The will of the people then is pushed aside for the will of the Super Delegates who, as I stated a month or so back, will decide the Democrat primary race. (Did you know that Republicans have no super delegates? The DNC created the Super Delegates, and the rules that govern them, because they wanted to avoid another McGovern. The convolutions of all this is too complicated to explain succinctly so I'll pass it on to someone else-- my point in all this resides elsewhere....)
....That being, the elite ruling class in the country-- call them the collective body known as Congress --have their own agenda. And to forward that agenda they keep us-- liberal and conservative, republican and democrat --at each others throat over issues we have the right to decide, that they have stolen from us. They will do as they please by fomenting discord and keeping us distracted.
As a Christian, my focus is supposed to be on God's word, NOT government. I'm to follow God's precepts not those of the Government-- To clarify, yes we are commanded to obey those who have the rule over us, but we are to distinguish between what is their right, and what is God's.
Now, it just so happens that our Constitution give us-- you, me, and every other citizen of the United States of America --extraordinary power over the government.... that we have extraordinarily abdicated to Congress.
Basic human rights should be guaranteed to every citizen of the world. Sadly, this is not the case. But the Gospel is not about basic human rights per se, it is about winning the lost to Christ. With that, extending what one can becomes an imperative.
Being poor, in and of itself, is not a social injustice. It simply is. How one was made poor, however, may indeed be a social injustice. We should defend those who need defending. Others, we should encourage to do better for themselves, helping them as we can, with the tools to do so..... tools, not necessarily cash.
It's not "the country's" wealth. It is the wealth of those who possess it. If it happens to be in the hands of 1% of the population, that in and of itself does not mean injustice was perpetrated upon the other 99%.
Job loss, medical events, homelessness...none of this is necessarily a result of injustice. More often than not, it is the result of the actions of each individual in those groups. Malevolent actions need to be taken against someone for injustice to take place. That someone never thought to prepare for life's curveballs doesn't mean someone else did them wrong.
It is not the government's job to make sure that people don't screw themselves. Donating to help those who have is fine. That's basically what charity is.
Here's some injustice for ya: Having a family without being financially prepared to do so. What an awful thing to put kids through. This happens way too often and explains a good portion of poverty and working poor situations.
I'm done. don't wanna go further off topic.
And this is what sticks in the Liberal craw most fiercely. To Liberalism, wealth is not an individual possession, it's the possession of those best capable of distributing, according to individual need. This necessarily excludes the Elites, however. Yes, everyone is equal, but some are obviously more equal.
All of which sounds like Communism to me, WHICH I might also point out, has been a miserable failure everywhere it's been tried. Why? Because without God, man is incapable of fair and equal justice.