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Pastor Jay's Blog

Murder for the Common Good

 

We have been hearing the phrase “right side of history” for years now.  It has been the mantra of the progressive left so much so that it has become worn out and used less and less.  However, it is still undergirding the thinking of the revolutionaries of our day.  This showed up again in a recent article in the New York Times by Nicholas Kristof entitled Will We Choose The Right Side of History found here.  In it he argues that we need judges that are forward-thinking not backward-thinking because history is going somewhere, and we must be on the right side of history.  

This same notion was found in another paper, The Guardian, with an article entitled Trump and Barrett’s Threat to Abortion and LGBTQ Rights Is Simply Un-American.  The key phrase in that article is as follows, “The underlying issue is the common good, what we owe each other as members of the same society.”  

So those are two major concepts that fuel what is happening right now: being on the right side of history: and being on the side of the common good.  The progressive left is declaring what the common good is, if you do not get onboard then you are against what is good, and history will affirm what was done to stop you.  

This is where I want to make the connection to a promise that Jesus declared.  Jesus tells us in John 16 that Christians would be killed, but the reason he gave for this is intriguing.  Jesus said some would be killed because those doing the killings were offering service to God.  

John 16:2–3  “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. 3 These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.”

Jesus is saying that these people are killing because they consider it good and needful.  How do they reach the conclusion that it is good to kill Christians?  It happens because they do not know the one true God.  This is always what happens when people get twisted in their conceptions of God.  Since the one true God of Scripture is the God of life, when you move away from him you are heading toward death.  The more twisted the concept of God, the quicker the path to death.  

We have seen this all through history.  Sometimes Christians are killed out of pure hatred for the salt and light that they are in a world of darkness, but many times they are killed in the name of a god who is not actually God.   As our Atheist friends often point out, many wars have had religion at the core of them.  But the true God of the Bible calls his people expend their lives to bring the good news to the godless and the deceived.  

So what is the connection to the news articles cited above?  Those articles are arising out of a secularizing trend within our nation, and there is no god mentioned within them.  Oh, but there is because Atheistic, evolutionary materialists are worshippers just like everyone else is.  There is still a god at play though it is hard to see.  For those don’t want to assert any deity, the next closest concept they have is the “common good.”  And this common good is the highest, most exalted concept.  But the problem with this concept is this; who gets to define what is good for everyone?  The Communist party of China will tell you what is good for everyone.  Kim Jung Un will tell you what is good for everyone.  The LGBTQ community will tell you what is good for everyone.  Moral relativists will tell you what is good for everyone. When natural selection is at the core of your worldview, you will act as your own god, deciding what is good for you and everyone else.  

Thankfully America is not so far along that Christians are being killed.  But when you hear people talking about the common good, that Christians are against it and on the wrong side of history for doing so, they are walking in a certain direction.  It is not a giant leap of logic to understand that the more this reasoning takes hold, the closer you get to removing those Christians who are opposing your god of “common good.”  What does removal look like?  Here are some possible first steps.  First, it is removal from the marketplace.  Christians can’t teach in colleges, have good jobs, or run their businesses according to their faith.   Second, it is removal from society.  Christians can’t hold public office or operate in other common ways in society.  

What other steps would it take to get to the place of approving the murder of Christians?  That is hard to say.  But the sinful human heart that is trained in self-deception, and nourished on evolutionary ideas, has created societies and governments in which this has happened before, and is happening even now in countries all over the world.  

What do Christians do about this?  We keep preaching the gospel to the lost, with and through our local churches.  We remember our Lord was killed and we endure as he did.  This is not our home and comfortable living is not the goal.  Eternity is coming and we live in light of what is permanent not temporal.  So get ready for trouble.  The common good will be coming for you.