To Babel And Beyond
For the past several weeks, I have been climbing through old sermons with the curiosity of discovering how my sermons have evolved from the beginning and are there any new ways that characterize my approach to my subjects. My research has not yielded any radical shifts in doctrines or methods. It seems I am mostly the same fellow that started here more than twenty years ago, and the messages have varied remarkably little if at all. Not true is the course of this world which is whizzing by us barely braking to slow down. The pull is for us to give up what others believe is our stoicism and to join in with the party that threatens to bring all societal order to destruction or to earnestly destroy ourselves trying. Our choices have certainly become more complicated.
Not all of us agree on the remedy for our crumbling societal woes. Our last election made it clear there is much unhappiness in our country, but I am also quite sure that many of our people do not know what to do with the mess both parties in this country created. Christians have their own dilemma to deal with as some of the most aggravating situations of our discontent cross the believer’s mandate to love their neighbor as themselves. This is difficult if you have decided to stop providing food and shelter for the poor and downtrodden. When the actual day comes for the government to load up immigrants and ship them out, the one who signs the lading slip might not feel too good about himself. Tough choices need making but it will be most difficult when we weigh the greater good for the masses against the individuals in front of us needing our help. We truly cannot deny that God ordained human government, and He sets the boundaries between the nations. A little Bible study will reveal the reason for jibber-jabbering at borders is due to man’s determination to build a tower to himself and make his own gods. The inequities caused by this are, as usual, dilemmas of our own making.
I remember a few years ago a Hispanic family became members of our church. When we consider new members, the process is usually the church making judgments about the qualifications of those coming for membership. There is nothing wrong with, and in fact quite desirable, for Christians to reverse interview those who will be their teachers so they will clearly understand the church’s doctrinal positions. This family asked me a question I had not heard before: “How would you counsel an illegal immigrant who has just become a Christian? Would you allow membership, and would you or not report him to the authorities?” I do not know when I may have answered a muddier question. I would have liked to have left it for the citizens of Babel to decide who they would take with them and where. I will leave the Christian answer for you to discover perhaps by attending one of our Sunday Afternoon Forum classes.
Come along with me now and help me discover exactly where the path of this article should end. I will complete my task by saying the simplicity I enjoyed a little more than twenty years ago is a fast-fading memory. The doctrinal issues were always difficult, and they will not change until we run out of mortal bodies. What our society will most likely look like is a reprobate world with substitute gods awaiting the last acts of toleration. Will that not be fun?
Pastor V. Mark Smith