John 14, “6Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
Our culture tends to lean towards cherishing an ideal or tolerating an ideal that runs counter to its foundation. Instead of loving Christ, our culture massages the false teachers and false churches of our day. In a real sense, society is massaging the mosque, the place of Islamic worship. Jesus said that He is the Way the Truth and the Life, that doesn’t mean that Christianity is inclusive of other religions because it is not. We are to love those who stand in opposition to the truth but not massage them and comfort them in their sinfulness. This is the problem with our society of neopaganism and postmodernism. They would rather have a multitude of truths within a given truth and a philosophical reasoning rather than a set moral standard. So therefore we are massaging the mosque by supporting the mosque and its work instead of the work of the Cross.
Our culture does this through our media which leans more towards the liberal agenda than towards the nature and work of the conservatives, which I realize is for some okay and for others not okay, I’m not here to take political sides, or spark a political revolution rather to point out the fact of the nature of the mosque verses the nature of the church. Why is this important anyone? Jesus said that He was the Way, Truth, and the Life. If Jesus isn’t the Way, Truth and the Life, the problem is far more complex than we have ever imagined.
Our culture would love to lead us down the slipper slope and down the line of reason so lets follow that reasoning for awhile. In our politics, you tend to lean towards one party or another usually depending upon your religious preference and upbringing, so with that in mind here we go. The liberal media today would love for us to accept the Mosque, because it represents something that is far more in their eyes than the Church. The church isn’t inclusive of others and the Mosque supposedly is? Of course were talking about the same Islam that butchers and kills people that has been the greatest persecutor of the Christian faih in recorded history, the same Islam that massacred Jews, Hindu’s, Buddhists, and the same Islam that is threatening the world with its hate in terrorism, and yes were talking about the same Islam where its founder killed off the Jewish clans and then moved on to town after town conquering everywhere he went. Just for the historical record, it was not the Byzantine Empire that struck the Islamic world and thus sparked the Crusades; rather it was the threat of the Muslims that sparked the Crusades and the Pope’s decision to defend itself, much as America defends itself today.
Now we see how slippery this sloop really is, it will lead us to hell and a hand basket in a hurry as we see even leading us away from the Way, Truth, and the Life, which complicates the issue even further. Perhaps its time instead of adopting the attitude of tolerance that we instead let the reality of Christ’s sacrifice smack us in the face for Jesus said that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life. Perhaps that truth ought to hit us harder than it ever has in our world today, and its importance for today.
Our culture cherishes the notion and nature of itself. Tolerance is not an excuse for comforting sin and letting people go to hell. Some have cherished the liberal media when in fact it is the Christians who hold the overwhelming majority. If we took our faith so seriously then we would elect officials to our government who stood for godly policies on the issues that are facing our day and times. Instead of dealing fairly and justly as rulers in our land; our rulers wish to comfort and massage one another banks accounts and support each other in anyway that they can.
Where are the godly leaders in our land, and why is the church the Body of Christ, the living representation of the Lord Jesus Christ not calling our and making more noise about the sins being committed in our land in the name of tolerance! Yet what we have seen today is that the liberal media is the one to blame, but it not just the liberal media, but the liberal universities poising our minds, and I’m not just saying liberals here either, but conservatives as well. But yet we all have differing opinions and that’s okay, but its not about being tolerant its about being godly, its about following Christ for He is our bedrock and our foundation. Jesus didn’t call us to have a comfortable faith but an extreme faith.
You see though that we have failed as the Body in being the living representation of Christ to our nations, because we have failed to understand that it is this bedrock principle upon which the Church is to preach, that Jesus Christ is the Way, Truth and the Life, there is no other means by which one can be saved or know God except through the work of Christ on the Cross where He gave us His all so that we could have eternal life and know Him in a personal relationship through repentance and faith in Christ, have our sins forgiven and buried as a result of His resurrection and Ascension to heaven.
What we have seen that the issue here is far beyond the questions we have been raising today. The problem is that our culture has massaged the mosque and thus denied Jesus as a solution to the question of truth. Instead of adopting an attitude predisposed upon the principles and reasoning of love and godliness, our culture has accepted as truth postmodernism like a water bottle full of dirt and leaves, shaking and stirred. In some way instead of being moral we have instead become amoral. So the issue now becomes what will we do? Massage the mosque? Or be the living representation of Christ’s Gospel to the world. I plead with the Body of Christ today to be the living representation of Christ’s Gospel to not be silent anymore but let the Gospel of Christ shine forth to the nations from our nation. Its time for Pastors and Teachers to wake up and hear the Word of God, not putting it aside, but hearing its words. When the truth is preached their will be changed, and when the truth is not preached, then a few will still remain solid while the rest go to the wayside. Yet some wish to go only the way in which they please and some will go the way in which God calls us in Christ to walk with Him.
To those who would hold onto what our culture cherishes today with its subtle beauty and frank paganism, this is a wake up call a very real wake up call that we must face and confront. If the Gospel of Christ is to be preached, then it ought to be preached the right way with the right motivations so that people can experience Christ not to experience the self glorified ministries of many. God does not call people to greatness, He calls them to service, He does not call people to be rich, He calls them to be poor, meek and subservient to Himself. I realize that people will not like to hear this, but this is the real Gospel, the real nature of ministry and the heart of God’s Word. Instead of massaging sin and embracing counter teachings to the Word of God, we ought to instead preach the Word of God, go on a walk and accept the validity of God’s Truth as the Word of God!
Yet the problems that we have faced today are very real problems. Its not just Islam that is a threat to our moral standards. Islam is a force that wishes to seek to destroy and wipe out the nature of the Gospel, but may our goal and our ambition be to preach the Gospel to its fullest extent in Spirit and Truth (Phil 1:17-18). May our ambition and our focus be upon preaching Christ as the Way, Truth and the Life, not painting some picture of some community that merely seeks to make others look bad, but shining brightly the light of Christ upon our satanic world system and its growing legions of philosophical reasoning and logic, who cherish the Mosque over the Word of God and the Body of Christ. Then and only then can we shine as beacons of hope and light to a world that seeks the God of the Bible, the God who will save them through Christ’s work on the Cross, and enter into eternal rest. May we instead of massaging the mosque be about building the eternal Kingdom of God, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ, fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-19; Acts 1:9; Mark 16:15), together with the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:37-39), so that the Ultimate Purpose of Christ ( John 17:20-23) will be realized. Then we won’t be about massaging the mosque but about building the Body of Christ.
Pastor Jenkins
