Absolutes

 It’s become quite popular for supposed spiritual leaders to question the veracity of God’s word, up to and including whether Jesus really is the Son of God and if He literally rose from the dead. Such individuals get a lot of air time because anything that casts a shadow on the household of faith is like kibble for the godless, and they do their best to blast the information far and wide.

It doesn’t matter how many pastors rightly divide the word, and it doesn’t matter how many preach the truth of the gospel; they go out of their way to find that one non-binary universalist pastor who insists that being good to each other is the ultimate message, and the pinnacle of the Christian faith.

It’s not a new thing. Going back to the genesis of the church, we see that everyone was perfectly content with those of the way being charitable, with feeding the hungry and comforting the hurting. Once they started to preach the resurrection of the dead and declared that Jesus was the only way, the only truth, and the only life, they not only fell out of favor, they were actively persecuted, hunted, and killed.

One of the clearest signs that you are not on the narrow path is when the godless shower you with praise and adoration. If the world loves you while they hate Jesus, you are not of Jesus. It doesn’t matter how often you appear on television or how much Oprah loves your tolerant and inclusive message. If the world who hates your Master loves you, you might not be serving the master you claim to serve.

The message of the cross is a message of absolutes. Either you are saved, or you are not. There’s no such thing as partially saved or partially redeemed. Jesus bought you with the price of His blood; He didn’t put you on layaway. He didn’t advance a down payment, hoping to complete His purchase at a later date. If you are His, be His, and believe Him at His word. If you are not His, sooner or later, the mask will slip, and everyone will see who you really belong to.

The devil is always looking to sow doubt, and he has his minions working day and night toward that end. Most pastors might be coasting, but the enemy isn’t. He is actively working toward wedging doubt between your active pursuit of the promises of God and the fulfillment thereof.

The enemy starts small. The seeds of doubt he begins to plant are almost imperceptible. That preacher has a point, you know, maybe when the Bible says the sun stood still, it was metaphorical. You know how time slows down sometimes when you’re at work, and an hour feels like a week? Maybe it was that. I mean, we can’t take everything so literally; everything’s given to interpretation, isn’t it? Did Jonah really live in the belly of a fish for three days?

And so, they whittle away people’s convictions, they erode their confidence, they stunt their expectations of who God is and what God can do until all that remains is to be kind, tolerant, and inclusive and strive to be inoffensive rather than strive for righteousness.  If gender is subjective, why isn’t the definition of sin? If right and wrong no longer mean what they used to but are situational depending on the circumstance, why aren’t light and darkness?

Who’s to say what God likes or doesn’t like? Who’s to say whom God will receive and whom He won’t? God! God said what He likes and doesn’t; He said whom He will receive and whom He will cast into the outer darkness.

Playing word games is all cute and fun until you stand before the great white throne and Him from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; then it won’t be so cute or fun anymore.

Believe everything God tells you, no matter how improbable it may seem to human reason. God will not fail. He will do as He has promised. We read the promises of God in His word and often conclude they are for someone else. Wouldn’t it be nice, we think to ourselves, not realizing that every promise is not for another but for you. If you are a child of God, His promises are for you! When God says I will, there is no debate or second-guessing; it is yes and amen.

We wait patiently, with faith and living lives honoring God and serving Him, unmoved and unshaken, steadfast and faithful, no matter how often the agents of darkness attempt to sow doubt. We do not wait just for the sake of waiting; we wait with a purpose, redeeming the time and doing what we were called to do, which is to be a light in the darkness.

He is coming. Are you ready? The master is returning; what have you done with the talents you’ve been entrusted with? Are you working in his harvest field or endlessly judging those who are? Are you putting your hand to the plow, or do you think it is beneath you? These are the questions that matter. These are the questions that require answers. These are the questions most Christians avoid choosing instead to fill their time with tertiary topics that won’t matter once we stand before Him.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.