Stay Off The Secular Bandwagon; Stick With The Truth

Word-Of-The-Day: ‘<Jesus said,>“(13) Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. (14) But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”’ (Matthew 7:13-14); ‘<Jesus also said,>“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.’” (Matthew 7:21)

Up until the last election, we had a lot of ‘gaslighting’ in our press, laid down upon the American citizenry.  With the mainstream media carrying the message, the principles of wokeness were lauded as proper and those against it used their free speech to oppose such ideas as a ‘weapon’.  Censorship, in an official government policy platform, became for a short time a reality, something that likely was never foreseen by our nation’s founders as ever happening here.  Fortunately, these propagated principles were from a ‘vocalized minority’, and once the silenced majority realized this and saw where the minority was taking them, the sentiment changed.  Though damaging, the light of Truth is now shining bright on the darkness and is bring out much of the wrongdoing and the wrong-think to the forefront, often through ‘non-traditional media’, like ‘X’ and other social media platforms.

Often, when we heard the mainstream media speak of woke things such as gender fluidity, vaccine mandates, climate change, wokeness, and other current-event issues, the phrase of ‘it’s in ALL of our interests’ or ‘it’s for the best interest of society’ (or to play with emotions, ‘think of the children’) is tossed about frequently.  The verses of today’s blog obviously are discussing Salvation, but there is also the underlying message that the ‘majority’ (or at least the ‘vocal minority’) is not always in the right. 

While the minority in terms of Jesus’ message in Matthew 7 is whoever accepts and follows Jesus as Lord and Savior, without reservation or concession; in today’s society, we often find in secular terms the minority is the most vocal and domineering component, and the majority is often quiet and submissive.  Fortunately, things are changing in that regard as the pendulum of public discourse is swinging in the other direction.

In Jesus’ time, and afterwards up through today, there has been a war waged on the Truth of the Word of God, and the Gospel message of Christ.  The Pharisees, as part of the ruling Sanhedrin over the religious and customary aspects of the Israelites, fought Jesus and later the Apostles and fledging Christian church, taking a stance against the Gospel.  The Sanhedrin attempted to use the ‘MSM’ of their day, namely the teachings in the synagogues and the Temple, to have the Israelites comply with their rules and regulations, which over time became less based on Scriptures and more on their own feelings and interpretations of them.  This gave the power and prestige over the masses.

Jesus and the Apostles, opposed the Sanhedrin and fought them, not with physicality or violence but with the Truth.  Jesus, being the Son of God, of course continued to ‘counterpoint’ their wrong-think with Truth.  Unlike our society today, the majority fell into ‘wrong-think’, but many, a minority even in our times today, upon hearing the message of the Gospel, came to the Truth and received the gift of Salvation and the Holy Spirit in accepting Jesus as Lord. 

Accepting Jesus often means repudiating the ‘official stance’, and through the almost 2,000 years after Jesus’ Ascension, this continues – Martin Luther’s reformation, the great revivals of the late 1800’s, and the rejection of the promotion of the secular worldview to accept the Biblical worldview of Truth today. Per Matthew 7:21, one cannot say, ‘I accept Jesus, but…’ or not obey Him to follow another ‘rulebook’ of your liking. It is following Jesus completely, and when recognizing our failure to follow Him, asking Him to forgive.

Elsewhere in the Bible, we have seen where the ‘majority’ falls into ‘groupthink’ which usually becomes ‘wrong-think’.  In Genesis 11:1-9, we see at one point ALL the people decided Babel was the place to be, so everyone moved there to live.  They all decided to do the same things, speak the same language, fall into line with what was expected of them within the ‘norms’ of society, and they proceeded together to attempt to build a tower to Heaven (or the heavens, depending on translation).  Although the Bible does not say if there was dissent, likely if there were, the majority of ‘Babel-onians’ quickly shot down the arguments and dissent of the minority Babel community that was against the tower. 

The minority could have spoken against the use of resources and manpower to build the tower, and perhaps that building such a tower without the blessings of God was not prudent.  The majority may have responded with ‘but its in ALL of our best interests’ to build the tower as it would make Babel a tourist and economic hub for the entire known world by putting Babel on the map.  God, however, does not go along with ‘groupthink’, especially when it goes against His plans and His teachings (making it ‘wrong-think’), so He ended up giving them different languages, which forced them to leave Babel with an unfinished eyesore of an incomplete tower, and scatter the former residents over the world instead. 

God does provide we do need to fall in line and follow societal and government rules and norms – up to a point, as long as they do not go against or hinder God’s Plan and Purpose (Romans 13).  However, societal norms also must fall in principle to God and put God first to be followed.  Man’s laws and norms should be followed until God’s laws and norms would be compromised.  In Acts 4 and 5, we find Peter making this point clear to the Sanhedrin; he would not disobey Jesus’ call to evangelize to comply with the edicts of the High Priest and the Sanhedrin. 

Throughout the Bible, Christians have had to walk that line between government rule, societal norms, and obedience to God.  Recognize though, that government and society are comprised of men and can be wrong.  God, on the other hand, is always, perfectly right.  When you find yourself in the minority, use respectful restraint but never compromise Christian principles – God must come first!