“You must not steal.” – Exodus 20:15 NLT
“Will a man rob God?…” – Malachi 3:8a NASB
They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen. – Romans 1:25 NIV
It’s all theft.
That was the message from a graphic that a friend posted on Facebook earlier today, originating with Bay Community Church in Comox, British Columbia, Canada.
One has to be living under a rock to not realize that the Christian is engaged in spiritual warfare. Still, I think that many “sign up” for the Christian faith without realizing the nature of the family/body/group they are joining themselves to. Consider this:
- Imagine you are one of the people being sworn in as a new citizen
- You correctly answer all the questions about George Washington if you’re in the U.S. or Sir John A. MacDonald if you’re in Canada
- You attend a ceremony where you are officially welcomed as a citizen
- You’re then told the country is at war and you are needed to serve
- You’ve been drafted, and you truly didn’t see that coming!
In a way, that’s what happens when someone decides to live their life as a Christ-follower. When we think of “spiritual warfare” we tend to think that
- this is something involving angels and demons
- this is something Pentecostal and Charismatic people talk about
- this is the stuff of fringe Christian TV channels
- this references stories of spiritual conflict in places like central Africa or S. America
However, if we go the other extreme, and totally discount the concept of spiritual warfare, we become hard pressed to explain much of what is taking place in our world.
The warfare model proves true. There are spiritual forces behind a lot of things we take for granted:
Eph 6:12 For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.
But anytime we
- see the headlines in the newspaper
- check out the news feeds on social media
- watch the evening news
we clearly see a conflict of ideologies; where the ideals of Christian people come into conflict with the larger world. We enter into a situation where up is down, black is white, etc.; and everything else is turned upside down.
So it should be no surprise that the enemy of our souls wants to take the basic Judeo-Christian framework for ethical behaviour — The Ten Commandments — and see us live lives which turn those commands on their head.
I thought it interesting that the same person who posted the above graphic on Facebook had also posted this one just hours earlier, showing how the “voices” both inside and outside us can easily be identified by the type of actions they propel us to.
Truly, the person who doesn’t realize they’ve signed up for a standing army is going to be shocked when the battle comes to their front door and the persecution gets personal.
2Ti 3:12 Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Unless we hide our personal convictions, or don’t stand up for what we’ve been taught in Church or taught from the Bible, there will come a time when our views will be in conflict with what it seems the larger society believes and practices.
Sometimes the persecution has been subtle, but in North America and Western Europe it is becoming more overt. Our values are being undermined.
It’s all theft.
Christianity 201 
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