Zach’s Theological Musings

  Note that I posted a new page of online sermon recommendations from my dad.

  One preacher on that list is Paul Washer. Washer is an American missionary to Peru, director of HeartCry Missionary Society, and itinerant preacher when back in the USA. Because of the nature of Washer’s ministry you may not find from him a verse-by-verse exposition through books of the Bible. While I praise God for granting Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones 13 years before he died to make it 4/5 of the way through Romans with his church this way, Washer’s role as intinerant preacher also carries certain advantages. In particular consider: if you had only one hour, or two hours, or one hour per night for a week, what would be the most important, crucial, urgent message to bring to American “evangelical” Christians? Washer hits the nail on the head better than anyone I’ve heard.

  Washer frequently likes to ask the question, “When is the last time you wept over your own sin?” My honest answer (though I may wish my answer was different): probably the last time I listened to a Paul Washer sermon.

Audio:

1. Selection of Washer sermons available through HeartCry missionary society.
2. Many more Washer sermons available at SermonAudio.com.

Video:

1. Ten Indictments Against the Modern “Church”.
2. Video regarding persecution coming to America, “counting the cost” of following Jesus, and (what Josef Tson would call) “Stolen Martyrdom” — that when you are persecuted your persecutors will probably not hurl against you accusations about the true nature of what they don’t like about you, but rather will simply hurl accusations designed to you hurt you most deeply and do the most damage (4 min): http://media.sermonindex.net/17/SID17663.wmv.
3. A so-called “shocking message” delivered to youth evangelism conference in 2002. Apparently this is where Washer began to be known as a preacher that people either loved or hated. Basically, it is a “classic” Washer message on the true gospel, true vs. false assurance of salvation, and a call to examine yourself. I would say the “shocking” part is that perfectly clear, oft-repeated teachings of Scripture are so neglected that when someone simply speaks out to affirm them it is considered “shocking” (59 min): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuabITeO4l8.
4. “Whosoever will may come. What will it cost you to become a Christian? Absolutely everything. Absolutely everything. What does God promise you? Eternal life, and a cross. What is it worth? All the value that is God. All the value that is God.” (1 min): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLIJM4B6_ZM&feature=related.

  How can Proverbs 12:21 (NASB) say:

No harm befalls the righteous,
         But the wicked are filled with trouble.

Perhaps it is not so hard to accept that the wicked are filled with trouble (though there is some tension to be resolved even there, such as that faced by Asaph in Psalm 73). But doesn’t experience and Scripture itself show that the righteous are too? What about Job? What about Jesus — a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief!?!

  Well, a few things can be said. One is the nature of proverbs and wisdom literature. Proverbs generally don’t give “hard and fast rules or laws” that are never broken without exception. Rigid, logic, math-oriented people like me have to be careful no to let the phraseology fool us. Throughout the Bible, just because qualifiers are not stated within a sentence or paragraph doesn’t mean that there aren’t any intended. This is especially true of Proverbs. Indeed, with proverbs the “qualifiers” often come in the form of other proverbs! The classic example is Proverbs 26 verse 4 and then 5:

4 Answer not a fool according to his folly,
   lest you be like him yourself.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly,
   lest he be wise in his own eyes.

(Although don’t expect the qualifying proverb to always be so close by!)

  Often the role of wisdom sayings is to create and sustain “categories of thought” in our mind. They “pave useful neural pathways” in our brain, if you will. That doesn’t mean that such a pathway paved is always the best one to go down, but it is important to have it there available and be aware of it. Yet another analogy would be that of tools. A proverb gives you a hammer and teaches you how to use it, but it is not always the right tool for the job. Indeed, part of wisdom itself is knowing how to use, or not use, a saying appropriately:

Like a lame man’s legs, which hang useless,
   is a proverb in the mouth of fools. - Prov 26:7

  So as to our original proverb, there is truth and wisdom in observing that as a general trend, because of God’s design of this world, a righteous way of living in line with His character does result in favorable consequences and a wicked way of living does result in harmful consequences. Engage in sexual immorality, for example, and you open yourself up to contract diseases which you wouldn’t have if you had abstained. Be a person of generosity rather than selfish stinginess, and when you yourself have needs it is more likely that others will be eager to help you.

  Second, there is also something to be said for these things being ultimately true. As the Psalmist discovered, the wicked may prosper greatly for a time (e.g. greedy, selfish, cutthroat businessmen) but the moment when their foot slips and they lose everything is awaiting, it’s just a matter of time. Likewise the righteous may suffer, but all their sorrows will most certainly turn to joy.

  But there is one more way that I think this saying can be understood which just occurred to me in my latest reading of it. That is, there is a huge difference between the righteous and the wicked on the matter of perspective, not just eternal perspective but even their perspective on the here and now (though the eternal perspective is certainly a key ingredient to fueling a godly perspective on the here and now). What one interprets as vexing, irritating, unbearable trouble and harm, the other can view as an opportunity for sanctification/refinement, as nothing worse than what he is in fact due, indeed as a form of blessing. The righteous “know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, emphasis added).

  Take Job for example, Job in his better days that is, especially before his discouraging “friends” got to him. When he lost his beloved children and all his possessions in this world he said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” - Job 1:21

He had lost nothing that was really “his” to begin with. He was born naked and crying into this world. He had to right no claim anything whatsoever as his own, including “his own” body! Anything he had was truly God’s possession, temporarily entrusted to Job’s stewardship. If the Lord would choose to take it back He had every right to do so.

  Paul pleaded with the Lord to remove the thorn in his flesh. But when the Lord replied, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weaknesses,” Paul submitted to seeing Christ honored in whatever ills might befall him as a greater worth and a more satisfying treasure than his own temporary earthly comfort:

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. - 2 Cor 12:9b-10

  And oh the testimonies of those who have been tortured, imprisoned, and beaten for Christ and found joy in that very thing (not merely despite it!)! See, for example Josef Tson’s testimony of joy through harsh interogation, “Thank you for the beating” (freely available from the Romanian Missionary Society). In doing so they simply fulfill the words of the Master:

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. - Matthew 5:11-12

  If we are to rejoice at persecution from the hands of our “enemies” (the command, “love your enemies,” shows that Christians do have enemies but with a very different perspective from how the world views enemies), how then can the righteous grumble and complain over the trials, no matter how grievious, that even the pagans share with us, much less the common minor inconveniences of life? I dare say they can’t; at least, they can’t continue in such a path without facing stern warning and discipline from the Lord:

Nor grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. - 1 Cor 10:10-12

  Do I mean that Christians can never sorrow? That they are always literally bouncing with happiness and gushing over how much “joy in the Lord” they have? No. Jesus wept. But harm and troubles are never the controlling or dominate theme. There is no evil that comes upon us to which we cannot say, “God is working this very thing for my good.” It is not that the good gifts from God outweigh the bad, it is that there is good for us even in the very things that appear bad to the flesh. If we go and learn what this means,

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Cor 4:7-12),

then we can truly say in all circumstances, “No harm has befallen me.”

  For the last few weeks, on and off, I have hung a banner from my car in the parking lot of my workplace with this image (click for better resolution):

together with a magnetic car door sign which simply reads, “Men are the Problem, menaretheproblem.info.” To make a long story short, some people complained, the property management got upset and threatened my company that they were in violation of their tenancy agreement unless they made me stop. On Monday October 27, 2008, I was fired.

  Now, it seems that whenever I do something that is considered slightly controversial amongst Christians, like hang a banner displaying the plain reality of abortion from my car or pass our Bibles to Muslims (don’t ask me to explain how the question of whether or not to pass out Bibles can be a controversy in the church !!!???!!!, or how it can even be a question at all !!!???!!!) that there are certain recurring questions and remarks to be addressed. So here is my first edition of an activism FAQ. There is a particular focus on this recent incident with the banner at work, but many of the principles also have wider applicability. Many of these are questions or remarks I’ve heard first hand, some I have heard second hand, and some are questions that I’ve asked myself.1) “Hmm, well Zach. I do appreciate the fact that your heart is open to do something about this issue [whatever it is], but are you sure this is the best way?”  Nope! I’m not sure it is the best way. But I’m pretty sure that it is a good way! Or at the very least an acceptable way! There is a saying out there that, “The good is the greatest enemy of the best,” that is, we never reach the best because we settle for the good. But I’ve found that mixing that adage up is much more relevant to my life, and perhaps yours. My modified saying is, “The best is the greatest enemy of the good.” That is, as long as I keep searching for the best way to do something, I never find it, because every path has its list of disadvantages. Pursuing the best, I end up doing nothing. Better to do the good thing, than to do nothing while on the endless quest to find the best! See also this post.2) “Um, wow. That’s an, um, interesting thing that you did. I’m not sure how to respond.”

  Here is what I think is some Biblical advice for the person in such a situation. You’ve got two choices. If you’ve gathered enough information to adequately understand the situation, and you think that what I’ve done is sinful, then by all means you must rebuke me (Matthew 18:15ff). If not, if what I’ve done appears to be within acceptable parameters for a disciple of Christ, then I think that Biblically you are called to encourage me (1 Thes 5:11) as we continue to spur one another on towards love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). Certainly, such encouragement can take the form of constructive suggestion, “Hey, did you think about trying this… ?” But of all of the “one another” statements in the New Testament, I don’t see any that say, “Heap discouragement on one another.” Either rebuke the sin, or encourage the fainthearted (1 Thes 5:14). And yes, I do get fainthearted; I probably loathe conflict more than most people, and yet the Lord keeps putting in me a compelling drive to step out in ways that inevitably bring conflict. It’s hard.  And this isn’t just about me. Let’s all try to stop discouraging each other. One person loves to share Christ in the context of relationships and another loves going door to door. Praise the Lord for both of them, don’t attack each other! One person wants more prayer meetings and another one wants more Bible study. They are both right! Any desire within the church to turn off the tube and devote oneself to holy endeavors of eternal value should be cultivated rather than squelched. To anyone I have discouraged in their simple quest to love and please the Lord, I’m sorry; I’m seeking to turn away from that and be an encourager of all things good.

3) “What’s all this focus on abortion? Have you abandoned your passion for missions?”

  I still think the greatest need, and what I would like to do more than anything, is the public preaching of the gospel in so-called closed countries. Please pray that God would fill me with His Spirit to empower me for that ministry. I tried standing up on street corners and speaking out a few times in China. Words of conviction and power just don’t seem to come to my lips when I try public speaking. I must say that I just don’t feel the Holy Spirit is in it. Now, when I give a talk on an issue that I’ve written five papers about and spent ten years thinking about, I can by God’s grace give a good empassioned talk. I hope and pray that through writing the Lord will solidify things in my heart and mind which I can then speak about more effectively.

  But I digress. Abortion? Ya, it is quite important too. In fact, I can’t begin to tell you the numerous ways I see the issues as utterly interrelated. Well yes, I can at least begin to do it. See this post and this one. Consider also the non-compartmentalization of God. It seems to me in the Old Testament that if a Hebrew cheated with unbalanced weights and measures in the marketplace (see Deut 25:13-16), then as an “abomination” in the eyes of the Lord, he would have no reason to expect victory out on the battlefield (compare Joshua 7). If I harden my heart to a wicked and unjust atrocity of such magnificent proportions in my own country (and elsewhere) as abortion, how can I go make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that Jesus has commanded us? Again, the Great Commission isn’t to rake in millions of prayer cards signed by professed converts who don’t really even know Him, it is to make disciples.

4) “Have you thought about your family and especially your kids?”

  Ya, I’ve thought a lot about my family. I’ve thought about my family through the perspective of the German kids who were raised by parents who didn’t really support the Holocaust, but who thought that standing up against the actions of the Nazi regime would be too costly. I’ve thought about my family through the perspective of those kids, now grown, whom I’ve heard say, “I can’t believe my parents stood by and let that happen.”

  As a father I have a responsibility to protect my kids. And some dangers are greater than others. I might let my son fall out of his chair and get a small bump if he insists on ignoring my instruction to sit down on his bum. But I won’t let him “learn the hard way” with a chainsaw. The greatest danger facing all of humanity is eternal hellfire for rejecting God and the salvation offered through His Son Jesus Christ. Unrepentant cowardice is one way that we demonstrate that we have never come to know Jesus or had our name written in His book of life (Rev 21:8), because those who do come to Him receive a Spirit not of timidity but of power (2 Tim 1:7). My greatest responsibility then, to the two little boys who imitate just about anything I do and say is to model for them godliness and faith, rather than fear of man and unbelief.

  When my friend Rick and I were facing the threat of a 2-5 year jail sentence for proselytization in Malaysia, our main interrogator Sergeant Ibrahim repeatedly said to Rick things like, “You are a bad father. You did this and got yourself in trouble while you have a little daughter at home.” In speaking this way, Sergeant Ibrahim was the very mouthpiece of Satan for discouragement to Rick. Little Esther (and now Sarah as well) are very blessed to have a father who loves Jesus as much as Rick does. The best love and care and protection he can give them is to show them how to live for Jesus. Second to my own dad who loves me dearly and was instrumental in leading me to Christ following his own conversion, second to him Rick is (at least tied for) the father I respect the most.

5) “But what about providing stability for your wife?”

  Let me tell you about a woman I know, let’s call her Lisa. Lisa is a preacher’s wife. Lisa’s husband has preached solid Biblical truth from the pulpit for many years. He has emphasized that our thinking must be shaped by the Bible. He has repeatedly said he wants his church to “not merely be a church with Bibles, but rather a Biblical church.” Then one day someone comes along and says, “Hey, here are 1000 free copies of the gospel of Luke in the language of the local Muslim people of this area. Let’s distribute them to people in this church to give to their Muslim friends.”

  Seems like a no-brainer, right? But for a church in this area to be known as actively evangelizing Muslims would bring some consequences. People could lose jobs, the government could take away the expensive church property, and Lisa and her husband who are actually citizens of a different country could be deported. In the end, Lisa’s husband goes along with the decision of his elder board not only to refrain from distributing these Bibles but actually to prohibit the distribution of Bibles in the Muslim language on church grounds. Lisa’s husband has flipped from wanting to shepherd a congregation that seeks “not merely be a church with Bibles, but rather a Biblical church,” into leading a church that outlaws Bibles because the consequences of having them around are deemed too costly. Lisa and her husband get to keep their house and keep their jobs, simply by throwing away everything that her husband has claimed to stand for for decades.

  I feel sad for Lisa. I don’t want to do that to my wife. I want to provide her the stability of knowing that through loss of job, loss of freedom, loss of house, loss of money, loss of property, and loss of life, not only will I never leave her nor forsake her, but I will also always strive to uncompromisingly keep our family on the one solid and stable rock that can endure any tsunami (Matthew 7:24-27).

6) “What crazy thing are you going to do next?”

  I’ve found that the Lord doesn’t open my eyes to step 2 until I’ve taken step 1. So I try to be faithful in the little things, and hope that He will entrust me with greater things. See also the answer to question 1 above. Whatever it is, may it not be “crazy” except in the sense of being “crazy for Jesus, His kingdom, and His righteousness.”

7) “If you end up in jail in some country for doing whatever it is, how do you want people to pray for you?”

  Pray through Philippians 1.

8) “How would you encourage others to act in light of the overwhelming atrocity of ongoing slaughter in this country?”

  If you have an idea of your own, that fits the way God has made you and is within Biblical parameters, then by all means I want to encourage you to do that which is on your heart.

  Ultimately I think the only hope and only answer to the abortion problem is prayer (Luke 18:1-8). But note, the cited parable doesn’t speak of the Lord being moved by a half-hearted word of prayer. Rather it says that He will not delay to bring about justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night. I believe that a movement of empassioned prayer will only happen in tandem with a movement of empassioned living. If the Spirit prompts us with ideas of, “Hey I could hang a banner from my car,” or whatever, and if we quench Him, then we will be quenching the Spirit of prayer. See again this post.

  If you really feel you “should do something” about this issue, and really don’t know what, I’d be glad to talk you through it. I do have some ideas myself, but even better if in talking I could help draw out some ideas that suit how God has made you.

9) “What drives your concern about abortion? Are you concerned more about the babies, or the mothers, or your own reputation, or what?”

  There is concern for the babies. If you haven’t already, definitely watch The Silent Scream in which an ultrasound recorded the actual images inside the womb as an abortion was happening. This movie is in some ways even more moving than the graphic movies of baby hands and feet being removed from the uterus after he has already been dismembered, because in the Silent Scream you actually see the terrified baby in the supposed safe, warm haven of his mother’s womb, sensing that he is in trouble as the baby vacuum starts poking around. You can almost hear him screaming, “Help me, help me, I’m in trouble, momma, dadda, can you help me? I’m scared!” But of course momma and dadda don’t come to help because they are the ones who paid to have him torn to pieces. So even though the baby is in some ways blessed to be spared from having to live a long life in this evil fallen world (Isa 57:1-2), you still have to have compassion for such a defenseless one to face such a traumatic experience.

  There is pastoral concern for the mothers, too. Hopefully they will find repentance, restoration, forgiveness, and spiritual and even physical healing. Even still, the saddness of such a terrible choice will be hard to break free from in this life.

  And I have a particular concern for the party that is all too neglected in discussions about abortion — the fathers. It is one of the most pathetic and disgusting things imaginable to see true manhood disappearing in a landscape of immature boys who care more about “getting laid” (and football) than things like honor, valor, and responsibility. Seeing selfish boys of any age turn in to real men is always a refreshing and inspiring experience.

  But more so than any of these I’d say my concern is for Christians. If I hang such a banner from my car, I’m more hoping to move the hearts of pro-lifers than pro-choicers. What? Yep. Really, what I want more than anything else is to remove any barriers to a passionate relationship between Christ and His church. And the ongoing hardening of our hearts is just such a major barrier. See again this post.

10) “Why did you sign the end of your prayer letter with `Zach, on behalf of my wonderfully supportive wife, and our two martyr-for-Jesus-in-training sons’?”

  Well, I’m Zach, my wife really has been wonderfully supportive during this and the one or two other “controversial” deeds of activism I have engaged in since we’ve been married, and oh, the bit about our sons being in training for martyrdom for Jesus? I can’t say I have a well formulated curriculum at this point, but basically that is just another way of saying I want them to be Christians. Because I’m sure you realize that Bonhoeffer was Biblically spot on when he said, “When Christ calls a man, he calls him to come and die.” Martyrs-for-Jesus-in-training are the only kind of Christians I see in the Bible.

11) “Perhaps you are being rebellious against authority [the government, or the employer as the case may be].”

  That certainly is a valid issue. The extent to which God expects us to submit to human authority structures even when those people are sinful, wicked, unbelieving, Christian persecuting pagans, is astounding. David knew that Saul had departed from the way of the Lord, but refused to lift a finger to harm the king whom he called “the Lord’s Anointed.” David even killed the messenger who came to tell him of Saul’s demise. All this despite the fact that Saul had spent years on a rabid mission to destroy David (1 and 2 Samuel). Slaves are taught to obey masters who mercilessly beat them (1 Peter 2), and wives are taught to submit to unbelieving husbands “in the same way” (1 Peter 3). Christians of all stripes are commanded to submit to the very governments that persecute them (1 Peter 1, Romans 13). Remarkable.

  Ultimately the reason, I believe, is that human authority is a shadow of the One True Authority over all heaven and earth. Just as Saul, having been anointed as king, was a shadow of the Anointed One (i.e. the Messiah = Christ). As much as a king, or a husband, or a master, or a parent might fail to live a life of godliness, they still hold the “office” which is a shadow of the true King, Husband, Master, and Father of all.

  But at the same time, we are clearly taught to obey God rather than men (Acts 4) and to fear God rather than men (Matthew 10:17-28). We are also called to have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather to expose them (Eph 5:11). When Esther dared to approach King Xerxes she said, “If [I and my people] had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king [emphasis added]” (Esther 7:4b). Causing annoyance to the king, or the president, or the master, or the boss, or the husband, or the parent, or the church elder whose authority you are under is no small thing at all. And yet, when people are in fact being given over to slaughter, destruction, and annihilation (Esther 7:4a) it is not only commensurate but in fact incumbent upon the people of God to somehow intervene (Prov 24:11-12).

  When it comes to these sorts of things, there is nothing that I struggle with more than seeking to know how to respect and be submissive towards authority while at the same time realizing that to completely satisfy the authority would require exalting their wishes and desires about God’s priorities. I agonize for days and weeks and months over such things. I would be delighted to receive a clear and unmistakable prophetic word from the Lord saying, “Do this, don’t do that.” But until that comes, I’m accountable to make the best decisions I can in light of His revealed word with dependence on His Spirit through prayer.

  Do I come out with exactly the right balance on these issues? Probably not. Before this most recent banner at work experience there was something else I had tried, and after a conversation with my boss one time I had to go back to him and apologize for not speaking respectfully. He said he didn’t think I was disrespectful but I knew that by the standard I’d seen in Scripture I was. Of course, I later went on to do some things he didn’t like. But I sought harder to be respectful in the process. So I make mistakes, repent, persevere, keep learning, and move ahead.

  So yes, perhaps I have been rebellious against authority in this or that situation, and to the extent that it is so may the Lord bring correction. But before jumping to such conclusions or lightly throwing around such accusations, please realize that there are agonizingly difficult issues in the balance here.

12) “Why do this at the workplace? It’s not like you work for a company that makes baby vacuums or anything like that. If you are going to protest, why not do it outside of Planned Parenthood?”

  First of all, it is not either/or. Protesting outside of an abortion clinic is certainly commendable and I have done so in the past.

  But I was specifically compelled to take action at the workplace primarily because, after my home, that is where I was spending the most of my time each week. I believe that with proximity (be it geographical, relational, etc.) comes responsibility. Let’s talk about evangelism for a minute. It is good and commendable if you wish to share a brief word about Christ to the cashier at the checkout counter or the person riding in the elevator with you. I almost never do that, unless they happen to say something that gives me opportunity to simply speak my thoughts about the Lord. But as for somebody you spend gobs of time with, isn’t it all the more reasonable that they should know what you believe? [And yes I have spoken about Christ with people in the workplace, especially how He is foreshadowed in the Old Testament (a subject I’m particulary interested in), more than I have spoken with workmates about abortion.] So the more time you spend with people, the more it tears you up inside if you haven’t talked with them about the matters you know to be most important.

  Also, bringing the issue of abortion into the “average everyday workplace” is precisely my intended target. One of the big reasons atrocities such as the slaughter of American lives on the order of a 9/11 tragedy every single are allowed to continue, is because we who know the truth allow society to define the categories and parameters in which the “issue” is addressed. We allow society to stick it with the label “political and/or religious issue” and then we go along with the reasoning that the workplace is not the appropriate context for dialogue on religious and political issue. Ladies and gentlemen, this is more than a religious or political issue. Although I certainly support Colorado’s “Personhood Amendment” 48, I find it offensive that alongside being asked whether I want to reduce tax subsidies to energy companies, I am also asked to register my “personal opinion” on whether a small defenseless person should be acknowledged as a person or whether we should be allowed to chop him up into pieces and suck the pieces out with a vacuum. This is more than a “ballot issue.”

  When there is a national tragedy, even “business workplaces” show enough respect to lower the flag to half mast. Flags should be lowered for respect, rememberance, and shame over the fallen every single day in this country, and short of that happening, I believe that making my own show (in the workplace parking lot) of respect for the dead is entirely appropriate, and if anything it is probably far too little.

13) “OK, but if you want to speak out in the workplace, why a banner on your car?”

  Why not?

  Actually, I did try a few other things before I had the banner idea. I did talk about the issue with the coworkers I knew best [of course, not charging such time to my record of working hours]. The boss said that if the issue came up, it was OK to discuss, but if I tried going from person to person or office to office with such an agenda that I would be canned. I passed out fliers in front of the workplace for about 10 minutes before property management came down on me. I talked with the boss about having an informal, off hours, voluntary forum in which to invite fellow coworkers, and he was actually OK with the idea, but the rest of the management team nixed the idea. The lines kept getting pushed back further and further. Eventually I came up with the idea of a banner on my car, figuring that what I did with my own car in the parking lot outside of the workplace was my own business. And again, to his credit, the boss was personally agreeable, but property management wasn’t.

  I could have stuck with a bumper sticker on my car, and probably wouldn’t have had any trouble. It also would have had virtually no impact. Unfortunately, on such matters, there seems to be a high correlation between people not getting upset and people not paying the least bit of attention to what you are doing.

14) “Are you going to sue your company for violating your rights to free speech?”

  No. Certainly there is a place for “claiming one’s Roman citizenship” not merely for the sake of defending one’s self from receiving a flogging but also: 1) to bring attention (light) to a matter that the forces of the world would want to sweep under the rug and hide and forget about, and 2) to set a precedent. I can see the legitimacy of at least considering the possibility that the case with my current employer is such a case that should fought in court with a godly demeanor. However, my conclusion is that this is not such a case. My main two reasons are:
  i) My bosses are Christian. Along the lines of 1 Cor 6, I think it would bring shame on the name of Christ to bring this issue before the pagan courts and news media. I can hear them now, “Look, the Christians can’t even agree amongst themselves about this issue, so why should we listen to anything they say?”
  ii) Even if I did have a right under American law to not be discriminated against in this way, it is not a right I want to claim or press for. Personally, I believe my employer should be able to fire me if they don’t like the effect my views have on the workplace environment. Morally, I think my employer is wrong. But I don’t think that “doing the right thing” is something that should be legislated in this type of case.

  If the boss wanted to stand up to property management in court and say, “Hey, you can’t threaten us that we are in violation of tenancy agreement for refusing to fire Zach over this,” then I think I would support the company in doing so. But they don’t want to. They would rather get rid of me and the legal counseling fees I was costing them. So if that is the way the company wants to go, I don’t want to fight from that angle in court.

15) “Are you seeking to get persecuted?”

  Are you crazy? No way! If you think I enjoy conflict then you definitely don’t know me. Or is it that you think that I love to get praised by fellow Christians for being zealous? Well yes, I do, and I repent of that. But I need to make you aware of a very sad reality that my experience has been whenever you seek to serve the Lord in a way that may bring about some suffering that could have been avoided had you compromised and watered down your stance, then in choosing the path of righteousness that involves a bit of suffering you will face more discouragement from professed Christians than encouragement. Other professed Christians get afraid that you are going to “make trouble” for them too. Perhaps that is why some portions of this post may come across as defensive or even bitter. I’m sorry for that. I don’t want to give any room to bitterness.

  I don’t seek persecution. But I don’t make the avoidance of it a high priority either. Here is the key: neither seeking persecution nor seeking to avoid persecution should be our decision criteria. The decision criteria is, “How can I please the Lord? What decision is in line with godliness and holiness as revealed in Scripture?”

  You can tell what a listener values by what they focus in on. Supposedly (I haven’t found verification of this story) one time Tony Campolo, speaking to a church audience, said, “Four million (or some such number) people died from starvation last year and nobody gives a shit about it. And the proof of that is that you are more worked up that the guy in the pulpit just said a naughty word than you are about the four million dead from starvation.”

  Suppose I say, “Tom preached the gospel to 100 Muslims and they beat him and threw him in jail (or killed him or whatever).” One person will say, “What? Tom did something that got himself beaten!? How foolish!” Another will say, “Wow, 100 Muslims got to hear the gospel at once! Praise the Lord!” Be careful how you listen, because in doing so you reveal what you consider to be of great account and what you consider to be of small account.

  To those who say that I’m seeking persecution, I say you are missing the point. You are focusing in on the wrong part of the story.

16) “You are not even being `persecuted’, you are just facing the consequences of a bad decision. Christians should be willing to suffer for Jesus, but not for doing something stupid.”

  I don’t think that I ever said I was being persecuted. The word comes up when we discuss such issues, but I don’t think I would choose to use it to describe this situation. I would say though that I believe this incident falls under the category of suffering for righteousness sake. If you think that displaying my banner [or say, passing out Bibles to Muslims] is “stupid”, well I guess you are entitled to your opinion. But I think it is a pretty sad opinion to have. Could you explain to me why you would call such things “stupid”?

  The Biblical call to be ready to suffer in this world alongside Jesus is more than merely passive. Yes, if someone of their own initiative comes to you and points a gun to your head and tells you to renounce Christ then you should stand firm in the faith. But love demands more than that. Let’s say that you were a white Southerner a few decades ago when hate-filled white folk were lynching blacks in America. Let’s further say that no one comes around demanding to know where you stand on the “lynching debate” with threats to harm you if they discover you are a “nigger-lover.” The only way you will suffer is if you take the initiative upon yourself to step out and do something. At the same time, the only way you can LOVE the black community is if you take the initiative upon yourself to step out and do something.

  Note that we didn’t go up to heaven to bring Jesus down and crucify Him. He came. We didn’t even want Him to come, but He came. LOVE often demands that we put ourself in the line of fire to rescue others. The fact that such a concept would be so foreign to contemporary evangelical Christianity is a testimony to how far we have wandered from the core of the true Biblical gospel itself.

  It is not uncommon for Western Christians, if they pray anything regarding persecution, to pray for an end to the persecution of the church in closed countries (some would say that 1 Tim 2 supports this kind of prayer). Occasionally, you’ll meet someone who says they pray for persecution in America, out of a desire to see the church of God in a comfortable, affluent society receive some of the refining that it desperately needs (see, e.g. 1 Peter 1:6-8, Rev 3:15ff).

  So which is it? Should we pray for persecution, or against it? Perhaps both. I used to have a pastor who (if I recall correctly) said that he prayed for comfort for the afflicted and affliction for the comfortable. That seems to me to be a reasonable balance with Biblical support behind it (e.g. 2 Cor 1:3:7, Amos 6, Luke 7:31ff, Micah 2-4, etc.).

  However, I must say that if ever I did specifically pray for persecution, I don’t anymore. It is not something I would want to wish on anybody. However, I do pray for things which I know very well will most certainly lead to persecution. For example, I pray that God would reveal and resensitize my conscience and yours for any ways in which we fail to truly and completely live godly lives in Christ Jesus. I don’t pray for persecution, I pray for godly living; but I know from the Bible that genuine, wholehearted godly living will result in persecution (2 Tim 3:12). Therefore, short of the final return of Jesus Christ, I also have a very hard time praying that persecution would end entirely, because if the Bible is true (it is) then that would contradict my prayer for greater and greater godly living.

  Brother Nick has provided the following quote:

 We have also come to understand that the past thirty years of suffering, persecution and torture for the house churches in China were all part of God’s training for us. The Lord has perfectly fitted us to go as missionaries to the Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu worlds.
  Once I spoke in the West and a  Christian told me, “I’ve been praying for years that the Communist government in China would collapse, so Christians can live in freedom.” This is not what we pray! We never pray against our government or call down curses on them. Instead, we have learned that God is in control of both our own lives and the government we live under. Isaiah prophesied about Jesus, “The government will be on his shoulders.” Isaiah 9:6.
  God has used China’s government for his own purposes, moulding and shaping his children as he sees fit. Instead of focusing our prayers against any political system, we pray that regardless of what happens to us, we will be pleasing to God.
  Don’t pray for the persecution to stop! Wed shouldn’t pray for a lighter load to carry, but a stronger back to endure! Then the world will see that God is with us, empowering us to live in a way that reflects his love and power.
  That is true freedom!
  There is little that any of the Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu countries can do to us that we haven’t already experienced in China. The worst they can do is kill us, but all that means is that we will be promoted into the glorious presence of our Lord for all eternity.

“The Heavenly Man: the remarkable true story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun” pp. 286-287

  So, in summary I have offered two suggestions. Either pray for and against persecution, or pray neither for nor against persecution — focus rather on praying for godliness in whatever situation the Sovereign Lord has ordained for us. Either choice, it seems to me, provides a balance that is lacking in any single, one-sided view of persecution.

  2 Timothy 3:12:

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

So then the natural question is why are we in America (for example), not experiencing any persecution?

  Now, to be sure, there is such a thing in Biblical language as a “time of peace” (Acts 9:31). The verse above doesn’t say that the godly ones will necessarily constantly face persecution. If I am not facing persecution right now, we cannot conclude from the Bible that I am not living a godly life right now. I could be enjoying a time of peace for which it is right to give thanks.

  But… on the other hand, if almost our entire Christian sub-culture (in America, for example) goes week after week, month after month, year after year, and decade after decade without facing any real persecution arising from a godly life in Christ Jesus, then hmmmm, it does make you stop and wonder. Is it a really llllooonnnggg period of peace that God has granted us, or it is perhaps that I am not actually living a godly life in Christ Jesus?

Two years ago in Ermelo, Holland, Brother Andrew told the story of sitting in Budapest, Hungary, with a dozen pastors of that city teaching them from the Bible. In walked an old friend, a pastor from Romania who had recently been released from prison. Brother Andrew said that he stopped teaching and knew that it was time to listen.

After a long pause the Romanian pastor said, “Andrew, are there any pastors in prison in Holland?” “No,” he replied. “Why not?” the pastor asked. Brother Andrew thought for a moment and said, “I think it must be because we do not take advantage of all the opportunities God gives us.”

Then came the most difficult question. “Andrew, what do you do with 2 Timothy 3:12?” Brother Andrew opened his Bible and turned to the text and read aloud, “All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” He closed the Bible slowly and said, “Brother, please forgive me. We do nothing with that verse.”

 [Taken from the foreword to Herbert Schlossberg, Called to Suffer, Called to Triumph, (Portland: Multnomah Press, 1990), pp. 9-10., as quoted in John Piper’s sermon “Called to Suffer and Rejoice: For Holiness and Hope“]

    You see, at any given time, in any given culture of this world, it is generally possible to obey large portions of the Scripture without offending or angering the fallen pagan world around us. But then there is always that one little point. That one command of God, which when obeyed wholeheartedly ignites the wrath of the Christ-hating world. So the Devil makes a deal with the professing church of Christ, “Tell you what. You just hold back in this one little area, just cut these few portions out of your Bible here and there, and I’ll leave you alone. You can have your churches, live your Christian life, etc., etc., just stay off this one piece of ground that belongs to me.” (Here is an example.) This is how Martin Luther put it:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point. (Luther’s Works. Weimar Edition. Briefwechsel [Correspondence], vol. 3, pp. 81f.)

  And this is how Jesus put it:

I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first. Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations-

He will rule them with an iron scepter;
he will dash them to pieces like pottery’-

just as I have received authority from my Father. I will also give him the morning star. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

  In Thyatira the stumbling point was sexual immorality and idolatry. Satan came to the church of Thyatira with some so-called “deep secrets”. We don’t know what those deep secrets were, but apparently in one form or another they basically amounted to this, “Look! You can be a fornicating, adulterous, idol-worshipping Christian! It is the best of both worlds! You get heaven, you get forgiveness with Jesus, and you get a lot of romping orgy fun in the meantime! This is the real deal! Don’t settle for anything less! You deserve the best!”

  The church did indeed have genuine love, faith, service, perseverance, and good deeds (as do we). Jesus saw those things and commended them. But He was also very, very angry, and promised certain punishment upon those who did not repent of that one thing that He had against them.

  The church in America (to use one example) is no doubt doing many things that are Biblically right, and rightfully refraining from many things that are Biblically wrong. But are there one or two points where we have made a deal with the devil? Could it be that we have fallen into, “profess[ing] with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at [this] moment attacking”? Could it be that the reason we don’t face persecution is because our definition of “a godly life is Christ Jesus” follows the Bible only so far, and then stops right where Satan has drawn a line in the sand? Yes, it very well could.