Contrarian

 I don’t try to be contrarian just for the sake of it. Unlike Joyce Meyer, who recently got her first tattoo, I’m not trying to be edgy. I could have gone into a whole thing about how it was a two-man job because while one person stretched the raisin to make it resemble a grape, the other did the inking, but I didn’t, and that’s what I call growth. Oh, wait. Nevermind.

I’m not going shopping for skinny jeans, I’m not looking to connect with the soy milk, septum piercing crowd, and I’m not looking for acceptance from individuals who wear eyeglasses as accessories and not because they need them to see. I’m a middle-aged married father of two with enough famine reserves on my person to outlast anyone of average weight, and if I had the choice, I’d mimic Jonah in that I would pop some popcorn, find a shady tree, and watch the world descend into chaos. Yes, I’m that guy.

It's not that I don’t love God’s people, I do, but as Bruce Lee once said, I did what I came here to do. What I’ve done, I’ve done with sincerity and to the best of my ability. I spent all my teenage years and the better part of my twenties and thirties traveling this nation and warning of what we are currently seeing unfold. Whether as my grandfather’s translator or on my own, I did it with sincerity and to the best of my ability. Other than self-immolate, which would likely only cause a couple of people to pull out their cell phones and film it, there isn’t much else I can do to compel people to listen to a message of repentance. Maybe a face tattoo. It seems to have worked for ole’ Joyce.

That said, I’m not one to roll over and play dead because it would be easier to do than to point out certain inconsistencies that have become mainstream within Christendom over the past few decades.

If my firmly held belief is that to get from point A to point B, I must traverse certain townships and come across certain places of interest, and I end up not running across them, I begin to doubt myself, as well as the road I’m on.

Some time ago, I drove from Wisconsin to Montana and planned to stop at the corn palace along the way. Don’t be jealous just because I’m more of an adrenaline junkie than you are. Some people can take the assault on their senses, some can’t. For some reason, I had it in my head that the corn palace was located in North Dakota rather than South Dakota, so rather than taking I-90, I took I-94. For a good twelve hours, I kept looking for signs of the corn palace, and there were none to be had. I’d taken the wrong road because of something I’d believed that didn’t turn out to be true.

I don’t know if I missed anything, to be honest, but it still irked me that I could be so convinced of something that wasn’t factual. Heaven is our destination. Jesus gave us the roadmap. If we take a different road just because it seems good, don’t be surprised if you don’t end up where you expected to.

Lawlessness is not the chef’s special for the last days. It has always been on the menu since the beginning of time. What hasn’t been is lawlessness in the church. Past generations took repentance, sanctification, righteousness, and regeneration seriously, as they ought. For the most part, this present generation, not so much.  I’m going somewhere with this, so bear with me, but be forewarned that some of you will hate me when I'm done.

Matthew 24:24, “For false christs and false prophets will rise up and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

Well, there you go, all this time wasted on talk of deceivers and being deceived. Jesus said if possible, so the logical conclusion is that it isn’t possible. Point taken, Jesus said it, but the question that remains to be answered is why?

Is it impossible for the elect to be deceived because God has them in a permanent headlock and even if they manage to squirm away, they’re still golden, or is it because the elect are so deeply rooted, shrouded, and cocooned in the truth of God’s Word that they will see the signs and wonders for what they are and keep from being deceived?

Will God turn a blind eye to habitual sin, rebellion, and even a mark on your forehead just because you know the secret handshake, or will you be welcomed into His kingdom because you strived for righteousness and holiness, being patient and established your heart knowing that the coming of the Lord is at hand?

No, these are not semantics. If they were, I wouldn’t have bothered. If you are in the former camp, then it is anathema to you that there could be lawlessness in the church. I did the thing, man; I raised my hand and waved my Bible all around; it’s cool; I’m in; we’re done. 

The problem, however, arises when we begin to look at other passages in Scripture and, line upon line, establish a fuller picture of what the church will look like during the last days.

2 Timothy 3:1-5, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

All the things Paul cited existed in his day. As with Christ’s reference regarding lawlessness, they did not exist within the household of faith. Today they do. If, perchance, Paul was speaking of the godless, why, pray tell would he say they had a form of godliness or that they loved pleasure rather than God? The godless have no form of godliness. Darkness does not possess any light. And as far as loving pleasure rather than God, that’s redundant at best. Why wouldn’t the godless love pleasure more than God?

But wait, there’s more! As the guy trying to sell you the sham-wow would say.

2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.”

Who’s doing the falling, and what are they falling away from? Another question to ponder before we exclude the reality that not all who say “Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven. Keep in mind that those protesting the perceived indignity of being sent away had prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, and done many wonders in His name. Yet, they practiced lawlessness and did not do the will of the Father, and as such, were unknown to the Son.

I didn’t set out to pop anyone’s bubble this morning, but by the nature of who I am, sometimes it’s inevitable. Call me the porcupine of God’s people if you must, but know that I do it out of love.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.