Hold Harmful Vitriol To Account – God Expects Us To Do So
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(23) <God said to the Israelites>. “If in spite of these things you do not accept My correction but continue to be hostile toward Me, (24) I myself will be hostile toward you and will afflict you for your sins seven times over. (25a) And I will bring the sword on you to avenge the breaking of the covenant.”’ (Leviticus 26:23-25a); ‘(10) If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! (11) Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. (12) If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay everyone according to what they have done?.’ (Proverbs 24:10-12)
We can, with some degree of confidence, correlate the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump with the repugnant rhetoric that has come out over the last eight years by the media, the politicians, and pundits of the uber-liberal, far left-wing of our nation against the former President and those who are to the right of them of the political spectrum (even against some who are ‘left’ but not as to the ‘left’ as they are).
There is vitriol dripping from the lips of those who called the former President ‘literally Hitler’, calling for this exact act to take place; and by extension calling for punitive actions against those who support Trump or conservative policies over the more radical ‘woke’ agendas that are progressive and liberal. This vitriol likely played a part in the formation of the shooter acting out what many said needed to happen. The shooter is (was) fully responsible for his actions, but those who called for such actions need to also be held accountable. Will we as a people do that? So far, we have not.
The Church and the Gospel of Jesus is non-partisan; in James 2 the half-brother of Jesus tells us we are not to be partisan or show favoritism in any facet or categorization of society. We do have both liberal and conservative members in MBC, for example – those who support the Democratic side of politics and those who support Republican views. This is how it should be, with decorum, discretion, and discernment Christians can ‘agree to disagree’ on secular issues that do not have a bearing on applying Scriptural Truth – pro or con viewpoints on Social Security, healthcare, funding infrastructure projects, and others that do not necessarily have a Biblical precept tied to it.
What the Christians need to be united in are those things that support Biblical Truths and precepts, and promote them; and be united in those things that support unrighteous, ungodly actions that are against the Truth of the Word, and repudiate them. That which goes against Christian principles must be repudiated by Christians, without concern of political affiliation.
The calling of assassinations, internments, harassment and other punitive actions against either political wing must be repudiated by Christians immediately and loudly, something we have not done as the Body as a whole, and certainly not in a unified voice. We have done a bit more with abortion and some ‘woke’ policies, but not as united as we should. While this rhetoric is more done by those on the far-left, in fairness there are those on far-right who have said or acted in similar fashion, though not as much or as drastic.
God said in Leviticus 26 that those actions that go against His Word are hostile toward Him, and – as He proven throughout the Old Testament – God will return those actions sevenfold. To go against His Word goes against Him and His Commandments. The vitriolic comments made by those calling for such hostility against Trump, his supporters, and other on the conservative side is breaking the Greatest Commandments, the two Jesus provided us in Mark 12:28-31: ‘Love Your God’ and ‘Love Your Neighbor’. How can you love someone by calling for harm to fall upon them? If someone stated, ‘I disagree with his/their viewpoints’ or ‘they should be removed from office’ is acceptable; though the latter may be seen a rhetoric, it is not wanting to harm them in a physical nature. Saying ‘someone should shoot them’ or ‘send them to concentration camps’ is, and is wrong.
To the Christian, in Proverbs 24 it provides when these troubles occur, we need to speak up and act against such occurrences. We are to be courageous through the strength of the Lord and intervene. Had the Christians throughout the world only intervened and spoken up during beginnings of the Jewish repression and into the Holocaust! Even in the US, we took a ‘blind eye’ and turned away, as did the Christians in Germany and throughout Europe as the Jews and other ‘undesirables’ were led into the boxcars. Many denied what they knew, what they heard – but God knew that they knew, and today He knows that we know, we cannot deny that we know.
It is a Christian’s moral and Spiritual duty to speak up for Truth, and the Lord will hold our actions, or our silence if we choose this route, into account. It is too late to stop the Holocaust, but it is not too late to speak against the rhetoric and put a stop to the vituperative of the true hate speech, not misgendering pronouns or other considerations of ‘wokeness’ that are Truthful but are said to hurt feelings; it is the speech that calls for violence against others. Be obedient to the Lord, and call it out – write an opinion to the news media, call your Congressional representatives or send e-mails to tell them to stop it when calls for violence are made, before it’s too late.
