Contrasting Headlines Stuart L. Brogden 8
Sep 07
The world recently provided two contrasting headlines, both surprising to me – but for different reasons.
27 August – from the editorial page of the Houston Chronicle: Living dangerously in the absence of 'holy fear' - Consequences of cringing at the Ten Commandments. In his column, Rod Dreher states, “The commandments certainly are regarded as hazardous by the Irritable-American community, which successfully petitions the courts to banish them from public life. At least these stalwart secularists give the Decalogue its due; most of us admire the Ten Commandments just enough to avoid taking them seriously. If we grasped how radical they truly are, we'd find them an offensive stumbling block to us middle-class moderns, who live in a rebellious age characterized by sociologist Daniel Bell as "the rejection of a revealed order, or natural order, and the substitution of the ego, the self, as the lodestar of consciousness."”
Dreher goes on to quote a pagan sociologist, Philip Rieff, who observed “the absence of "holy fear" makes us terrors unto ourselves and one another.” By placing the Self in the place of God, said Rieff, Western man has passed into a perilous state in which his fear, anxiety and loss of ultimate meaning can only be endured through pleasure-seeking and other therapeutic means. Dreher comes to his close with this observation, “We will live in holy terror — the fear of the Lord — or we will live in terror of ourselves and one another. Why? Because we know what humans who recognize no authority but themselves are capable of.”
Proverbs 8:13 – To fear God is to hate evil: The fear
of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the
froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverbs 16:6 – To fear God leads away from evil: By
mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from
evil.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – To fear God and obey Him is the whole
duty of man: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God,
and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
2 Corinthians 7:1 – Holiness demands the fear of God: Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all
filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
The question for the Christian – Do we have our culture’s view of God’s law, admired and ignored? Or do we rightly fear the Lord God of heaven and walk in obedience to His commands?
Second surprising headline, from the 2 September edition: Wicca teacher says he has 1 winning ticket in Mega Millions. We read, “Elwood "Bunky" Bartlett says a New Age book store made it possible for him to become an overnight multimillionaire. He and his wife, Denise, were on their way to the shop where he occasionally teaches Wicca and Reiki (RAY'kee) healing when they stopped at a liquor store and bought two $5 Mega Millions tickets. … Bartlett, an accountant from Dundalk, said he made a bargain with the multiple gods associated with his Wiccan beliefs: "You let me win the lottery and I'll teach." Both tickets he purchased had numbers chosen randomly from the computer.”
Ya’ll have probably heard of Wicca, people who claim to be witches have been in the news for several years. Reiki is less well known, but more dangerous to unsuspecting folk. According to a large Reiki organization: "Reiki can be defined as a non-physical healing energy made up of life force energy that is guided by the Higher Intelligence, or spiritually guided life force energy." The tangible danger posed by the new age religions is this: “Most people, many Christians included, believe if something is spiritually positive then it is of God.” (Ray Yungen). From a web site (http://www.reikidangers.eu/spirit.htm) dedicated to calling people out of Reiki: “Reiki is spiritual and it does work, but is not divine, not of Jesus, and not of God (John 14:7). There is a difference between angels and fallen angels (1 John 4:1-4); there is a difference serving God (Matt 4:10), and serving reiki; between giving honor to God and honoring reiki, after each healing.”
Reiki is a real spiritual religion that, as with many other occult practices, is demonic in its very nature. Spiritual practices not of God are witchcraft. And what does the Lord of Heaven say about witchcraft?
1 Samuel 15:22 – 23 “And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”
2 Chronicles 33:1 – 6: “Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty and five years in Jerusalem: But did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, like unto the abominations of the heathen, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel. For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down, and he reared up altars for Baalim, and made groves, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them. Also he built altars in the house of the LORD, whereof the LORD had said, In Jerusalem shall my name be for ever. And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the LORD. And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”
Galatians 5:19 – 21: “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
We who claim Christ must recognize the danger of anything that might take first place in our affections, whether it be outright evil like witchcraft or socially acceptable such as my motorcycle, or food. All such affections can easily slip into first place, becoming idols. We must hold fast to the Truth and not practice idolatry.
1 Kings chapter 18
tells of Elijah’s confrontation with Ahab and the prophets of Baal. Ahab in this passage called Elijah a
troubler of Israel because he was challenging Ahab’s corrupt kingdom. It’s always something when the people living
of the flesh call the people serving God troublemakers! Verse 20 – 21 “So
Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on
Mount Carmel. 21 And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will
you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal,
follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.” Why not
just stay with the program going along with what everyone else is doing? Why
bring God into the picture when everyone is happy in the flesh? That, apparently, is what the people of
Israel were thinking.
Why would any saint
think that it’s ok to live for God AND live for other religious and social
ideals simultaneously?
Matthew 6:24 – “No
man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other;
or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
mammon.”
James 4:4 – “Ye
adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God.”
2 Corinthians 6:14
– 18 “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what
fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath
light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part
hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of
God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall
be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the
Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a
Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord
Almighty.”
Joshua 24:14-18 “Now
therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the
gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt.
Serve the LORD! And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for
yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers
served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites,
in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the
LORD to serve other gods; for the LORD our God is He who brought us and our
fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those
great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and
among all the people through whom we passed. And the LORD drove out from before
us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will
serve the LORD, for He is our God.”
Be known as a child
of the King, be not mistaken for a worldling.
1 Peter 2:9 “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”