Time for Civil Disobedience, Christians

“Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.”

The push back has begun. Christian business owners, lawyers, parents, judges, county clerks, organizations, universities, hospitals, adoption agencies and other individuals and groups have been given an ultimatum by five unelected, unaccountable liberals in Washington, D.C.: “You must now obey us and disobey God. You must pretend, with us, that sin-based same-sex ‘marriage’ is an actual thing.”

Absolute truth is a stubborn thing. Attempts at marital alchemy notwithstanding, the highly contentious, wholly contemptible 5-4 “gay marriage” opinion (and that’s all it is, an opinion) released last week by five pagan extremists in black robes is altogether illegitimate and should be treated as such.

From a moral, biological and legal standpoint, the court’s majority opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges is a complete farce. It’s an absurd missive, a bohemian word salad that was roundly, and rightly, condemned by the court’s four dissenting justices. “The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie,” mocked Justice Scalia.

These “five lawyers,” as Chief Justice John Roberts called them, can no more suspend the laws of natural marriage, than can they suspend the laws of gravity. “[D]o not celebrate the Constitution,” wrote Roberts. “It had nothing to do with it.”

This opinion, which has been branded “the Dred Scott of marriage,” has not changed, one iota, the fixed and immovable reality that the institution of marriage, an institution as old as mankind itself, is, and shall forever remain, centrally defined by its binary male-female requirement.

Indeed, as the four dissenting justices noted, the majority failed, at every level, from a precedential, historical, moral and, perhaps most importantly, a constitutional standpoint, to make the case for redefining marriage – something no man can do.

So how should we Christians react to this haughtiness – to this rebellion against God?

God’s word tells us how to react: “But Peter and the apostles answered, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’” (Acts 5:29)

Many of us have long warned that this day would come, and it has arrived. In the Spirit of Daniel the prophet and MLK the reverend, we Christians must now engage, as relates our peaceful response to the imposition of counterfeit same-sex “marriage,” in widespread civil disobedience. It’s the right thing to do. In fact, it’s a sin if we don’t. “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.” (James 4:17)

There are those who will prefer the path of least resistance and will cite, out of context, various Scriptures in order to avoid the possible persecution that may come as a result of obedience to God. For example: “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” (Romans 13:1)

To be clear, under our constitutional republican form of government, “We the People” are “the governing authorities,” and our elected officials in Congress and the White House are the hired help. They are subject to us, and we are all subject to God, Who is the Final Authority.

These nine unelected, unaccountable justices on the U.S. Supreme Court are appointed and confirmed by the elected officials we hire to represent us. Five of the nine have now presumed to defy both the sovereign will of tens of millions of “We the People” who engaged the constitutional process and voted to defend the immutable definition of marriage, as well as, and more importantly, the sovereign will of God Almighty, the very Author of marriage itself.

Central to Christianity, and clearly delineated throughout both the Old and New Testaments, is the unambiguous and timeless proposition that any sexual practice outside the bonds of true man-woman marriage constitutes sexual immorality and results in separation from God. This, of course, includes sexual acting out between members of the same sex, whether or not such acting out is tied to the novel notion of so-called “same-sex marriage.”

So let’s see if we can make this abundantly clear. Christians, true Christians – regenerate, Bible-believing Christians who strive their level best to maintain fidelity to the word of God and honor His commands – will not, indeed cannot, participate in, approve of, facilitate or encourage certain behaviors deemed by the Holy Scriptures to be immoral or sinful. This is both our constitutionally affirmed human right and our Christian duty.

It is not so much that Christians wish, willy-nilly, to call homosexual behavior, polyamory, fornication, adultery, bestiality, incest or any other disordered sexual proclivity “sinful.” It is, rather, that we must. For the true Christian, God’s objective truths will always trump man’s subjective desires.

And so this opinion, let’s call it “Kennedy’s folly,” will result in, must necessarily result in, widespread civil disobedience – disobedience of the sort we haven’t seen since the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and ’60s.

For 2,000 years, whenever such conflicts have arisen, Christians have placed the laws of God above the laws of man.

As many in the early church refused to bow a knee to Caesar in worship, so, too, will many modern Christians refuse, under any circumstances, to obey any court opinion or man-made law that presumes to make sin obligatory.

If the ancient church, through the power of the Holy Spirit, was able to face the lions in hopeful anticipation of joining Jesus, then we, too, under the same Spirit, will face anything today’s pagan left can threaten.

In the ongoing culture war, it seems there are no rules of engagement. The secular left will accept nothing short of unconditional surrender. That is to say, the pagans demand that we Christians abandon the biblical worldview altogether, and adopt their own.

In his “letter from the Birmingham jail,” Martin Luther King Jr. famously declared, “One has not only a legal, but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

“A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God,” he explained. “An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.”

One can imagine nothing more “out of harmony with the moral law,” than the twisted and oxymoronic notion of so-called “same-sex marriage.”

I posted this before in relationship to the Islamic prophet cartoon contest. Those who see themselves as Christians might want to reflect on what scripture says. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, the Apostle Paul states his method for sharing the gospel with the lost. I don’t see holding a cartoon contest in there to mock the Jews or one to mock the false gods of the Greeks. They didn’t go out and march in the streets with signs. What makes the difference is that his concern is for the gospel - that it might find a place in the heart and mind of a lost person. He identifies with them where he can - he does not compromise in essentials. He would never compromise his message or the Word of God. But he is not intentionally rude or out to provoke a fight. Will the majority of our culture listen or have a rational conversation with a Christian trying to convince them of the truth claims of Christ and the error of same sex marriage (or any other sin, like lust, gluttony, greed)? Some will, perhaps, but probably most won’t. But for the few that will and the few that might “watch how a true believer in Christ lives” we Christians should be the salt and light that the Bible calls us to be. Wise as serpents but harmless as doves. Yes, we are in a war, but the Bible states that we do not wage warfare the way the world does. Our weapons are spiritual. Witness Daniel and his 3 friends in the book that bears his name. They each had their faith tested. God delivered them. Isaiah was sawn in half and Steven was stoned for his witness (to the religious leaders of his community). The first church did not immediately hold a “draw a Pharisee or your favorite Sanhedrin member contest.” They fled Jerusalem. The prophetic scriptures state that in the end, the world will get increasingly evil and persecution of Jews and Christians will increase. The antichrist (whoever he turns out to be) will wage war against the saints and overcome them. That means he’ll kill the majority of them. Part of the problem is that the majority of people are so invested in their own personal lives that they do not care what is happening in our country until it effects them personally. How could over 50 million babies be aborted in the U.S.? Easy... most people don’t care because they are not the baby that’s being murdered. But they may be the people who made the baby. Doing the right thing or doing what’s convenient - that’s often the decision? Our president said he didn’t want to “punish” one or both of his daughters with a baby. We are at the point in this country that even if there was not one single Muslim that would cut off the head of a Christian or a Jew there are plenty of university professors, media personalities, Hollywood types and (I saved the best for last) politicians that would love to. The same is true for this issue of same sex marriage. That is what is in their heart. They might not want to do it themselves but they will be glad to hold the cloak of others that are doing the stoning (or head cutting, revoking private property rights, confiscating possessions - including children, denying business license, etc. etc.). Christians are to speak the truth in love and let the consequences be whatever will come. If we can fight legally we might want to do so but ultimately what happened to the Jews in Germany could happen here to Christians. I think we all know that. We are instructed not to throw our pearls before swine but we are to be ready to give an answer to those who ask us of the reason for the hope we have - with humility and love. Hard to show or demonstrate humility and love while you’re demanding your rights. It’s a bit tricky but this idea of St. Paul’s regarding the Gospel, should be our guiding principle. Our job is to hold up the standard and to be faithful unto death in this dispensation of grace. That dispensation that will end very soon as God Almighty turns his attention back to the nation of Israel and who will again show himself as the vengeful God of the Old Testament. It doesn’t mean that at some point we wouldn’t take up arms to defend or save our families from those that would harm us or that Christians are total pacifists. But as a general rule it is not our first line of defense. Many in the middle east are doing what the early Christians did. Coming here soon. Jesus told his followers that when you are persecuted in one place to flee to another - but continue to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom. Civil disobedience means many things to many people. The message of the cross and of the coming Kingdom of God should drive what we do. Repentance and turning to God’s solution for our sin problem is the only real answer. Outside of that option, we have no hope, nor does our nation. There are many things destroying our country and culture. The author of this article is most likely right in that the righteous in America are not going to turn the country around. But true Christians will not compromise the truth of scripture. We face whatever consequence there is to face for being more concerned about the glory of God than our own personal convenience and safety. The real war is against God, his holy character and those that love and (most importantly) obey him by those that hate him - and would kill him if they possessed the power to do so and happily enthrone themselves in his place. We are called to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. I think our enemies would love to see us protest and demand things and get all bent out of shape. They love anger and hate. Look what happened in Charleston. The Left was very upset that it didn’t turn into Baltimore. The harlot church will and have already compromised. They are finding their life in this world and will be among the first to attack the true church of Christ for their stand. We are encompassed about by enemies on every side. This should drive us closer to our Lord and Savior come what may.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ II Cor. 10:4&5

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