To the World, We May Be Offensive…But Jesus Was Offensive, Too
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(12) <The Lord said to Isaiah,> “Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it. (13) The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, He is the one you are to fear, He is the one you are to dread. (14) He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah He will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem, He will be a trap and a snare.”’ (Isaiah 8:12-14)
Jesus was offensive; He was sentenced to death by crucifixion by Jewish religious leaders for the act of blasphemy, which could be construed subjectively as ‘offensive hate speech’. Jesus performed many acts and said many things that were not in line with the Pharisees’ ‘Code-of-Conduct’, such as healing folks on Sundays, pronouncing that only He was the way to the Father, and that it was OK to be nice to Samaritans and share with them the Gospel message.
The Gospel message in Jesus’ day would have been labeled ‘politically incorrect’ if that term existed back then. Noah also was a ‘crazy conspiracy theorist’ who was quite extreme in his day; he built the Ark in the middle of an arid landscape and told those around him the Truth, to repent of their sins, or else be drowned by the floodwaters to come, but no one listened to him – until the day the rains came, then when the people realized ‘old crazy Noah’ was telling the Truth after all, it was too late for them as that ship had already sailed (pun intended).
People often are offended or will ridicule the Truth, up to the point of murdering someone to avoid it. The media and politicians are using ‘political correctness’ to suppress the Truth, a Virginia chef cancels reservations to avoid the Truth, and British authorities are deny the authenticity of the Truth by arresting people on the street silently praying to the Lord. Christians cannot capitulate on the Truth to be considered by secularism to be ‘tolerant’; progressive Christianity may be popular, but it is not Christianity at all as it lifts up the Lie by suppressing the Truth.
We do not use the Truth to put down or destroy or to harm others. Christianity needs to be constructive, using the Truth to tear down sin and then build back in Righteousness. If this means we are seen by the Secular World as being intolerant, offensive bigots – so be it! The Truth is God knows that we are not; we, like Noah and especially like Jesus, may look like we are ridiculous anachronisms in a modern, secular world but we are living in Truth, and speaking in the Truth. Do not fear to be offensive – sometimes we all need to be offended to learn and accept the Truth.
