6-4-18<\/p>\n
You can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?<\/em> This is a famous rebuke from Jesus to the Pharisees and Sadducees found in Matthew 16:3.<\/p>\n Christians in America and much of the West, and traditionalists at large, should be praying that these are the End Times, because sometimes it is hard to contemplate things being much worse. We are lulled by good economic news, and the general prosperity that envelops us \u2013 the culture\u2019s \u201cbread and circuses\u201d taking our eyes from the signs of the times. Those signs flash, these days, as brightly as they ever have.<\/p>\n In Charles Wesley\u2019s great sermon on this passage he notes that Pharisees and Sadducees often disagreed on many matters, but they came together to challenge Jesus; to test him; to ensnare Him in contradictions. Of course they failed, and He confounded them<\/em>.<\/p>\n The fuller Biblical passage reads: The Pharisees also, with the Sadducees, came, tempting, requesting that He show them a sign from heaven. He answered and said, When it is evening, you say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, It will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O you hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky; but can you not discern the signs of the times?<\/em><\/p>\n There are several things to take away from this exchange, pertinent to today. <\/p>\n The first fact is pertinent but seems impertinent<\/em> to many Christians today. And that is: Jesus rebuked<\/em> his interlocutors. He often rebuked people. If we dig deeper, He tended to be silent with outright accusers \u2013 as during Passion week \u2013 but frequently rebuked those who played to the crowd; who devised trick questions they hoped would stymie Him; He angrily dispatched liars and those who would seek advantage<\/em> in arguments… but not seek the truth<\/em>.<\/p>\n Christians are in that situation today \u2013 the world is full of vicious opponents who work to steal, kill, and destroy our faith. Another class of opponents, making convenient alliance as haters of old, especially in our midst, use other means to attack us. Ridicule. False charges. Mis-characterizations. Guilt by association. Seduction by pleasures of the sinful world. Corruption. Regulations and laws. Dishonest values.<\/p>\n I recently was a speaker at a Christian conference where a round-table discussion was assembled to address the \u201ccrisis\u201d of how Christians are perceived in contemporary society. I was rather in the minority, holding a) that the crisis is in the culture, not with Christians who resist its corruption; and b) that believers who judge their effectiveness by the world\u2019s reaction, or approval, have lost the fight already; and likely do not even recognize the fight\u2026 or the stakes.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we perceived as haters?\u201d and \u201cHow do we counter that perception?\u201d were the assigned questions. I received a lot of pushback, especially from two relatively prominent writers \/ teachers. The usual categories of those people determined to reject the Gospel were trotted out, and I was fairly accused of caring little about their souls.<\/p>\n I would like to think that my standard is that of Jesus: I love their souls so much that I desire to deliver the purest, least compromised truth, that I can. And I firmly believe \u2013 and plead with other believers \u2013 that if people reject the Truth today\u2026 we have nevertheless planted the seed<\/em>. The Holy Spirit was sent into the world to finish the jobs we have been privileged to do, as per the Great Commission: preach the Gospel. <\/p>\n There was a dear friend in the audience that evening who was almost in tears, confessing to spending many nights in tears because some Christians talk about how terrible these times are. Can\u2019t we see the \u201clight\u201d? Can\u2019t we accept the workings of a loving God today?<\/p>\n I tell all such friends that I have in fact peeked at the end of the Book. Yep, God wins.<\/p>\n But does that mean America succeeds? For all our recent sins, do we deserve to \u201csucceed\u201d? to prosper? to get a pass from the judgments God has visited on other apostate peoples? Will revival come to a nation determined not to seek it\u2026 to not even recognize that it needs revival? <\/p>\n Why does it surprise us that schools have turned into so many drug-infested, values-confused shooting zones, when two generations ago Bible reading and public prayers were outlawed in their classrooms? Read other headlines \u2013 hospital workers who believe that abortion is murder, are nevertheless ordered to perform infanticide. Public airwaves have become cesspools of filthy language and filthy ideas, protected by \u201cfree speech\u201d arguments (denied, however, to traditionalists). <\/p>\n One of the last countries in Europe votes to allow abortions, and vast oceans of people cheer the outcome in public squares. Not by the relatively few women whose medical conditions possibly were threatened, but by thousands of women \u2013 and men \u2013 who could otherwise be rallying against drugs and corruption and a culture of social hatred. No\u2026 blood lust. Back home in America, widespread angst about the legal fate of a baker who declined to decorate a cake with a message that offended his values.<\/p>\n That a nation of one-third of a billion people can be awaiting such a momentous Court decision that carries incalculable implications\u2026 turning, literally, on a vote of one or two people in black robes\u2026 is somewhere between ironic and absurd \u2013 but soundly a Sign of the Times.<\/em><\/p>\n It is a virtual reality these days that Christians wear Scarlet Letters. Or might soon, literally. A mark of the beast. Nonsense? Hester Prynne wore the letter A (for Adultery) on her forehead in the 1850 indictment of Puritanism in Nathaniel Hawthorne\u2019s novel. Fewer than a hundred years ago, Jews across Europe often were obliged to display yellow Stars of David.<\/p>\n Signs of the times plausibly might include an obligatory red \u201cC\u201d (for Christian, anathema!) on nuns and doctors who refuse to provide abortions; on teachers who secretly allow students to read Bibles; to people praying in public (street-corner evangelism is already outlawed in some European countries); to bakers who decline to violate their beliefs when they decorate cakes.<\/p>\n If it were not for double standards these days, secularists, liberals, and relativists would have no<\/em> standards.<\/p>\n I wrote above that I have two take-aways from Jesus\u2019 famous rebuke. The first must be our willingness to rebuke evil \u2013 to defend, if not ourselves, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The second lesson is to simply be aware<\/em> of the signs of times. Pray for discernment, wisdom, knowledge, then boldness as appropriate.<\/p>\n Like with the group at the round-table discussion, it is too easy for Christians to confuse peoples\u2019 compliments for their convictions. Christianity is not a democracy: the number of preachers in backward collars, or church-attendance numbers \u201crun\u201d each Sunday, all mean nothing if people do not hear, do not understand, do not believe the Gospel. It is worse<\/em> than nothing\u2026 because a generation is being coddled and lied to on their way to hell.<\/p>\n Jesus challenged His challengers. Three hundred years ago, Wesley asked, \u201cHow is it, that all who are called Christians, do not discern the signs of these times?\u201d The question still burns today \u2013 even as the signs burn brighter in our faces.<\/p>\n Yes, we win at the end of time. But until then, God wants us to run the race.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n