Words of Truth

This morning I woke up and hit the power button on my phone only to find that my battery was at 1%. I had five seconds to look at the screen before the phone shut down with a dead battery. That’s when I realized that last night I didn’t plug my phone in to the charger.  The charger was plugged in to the wall right next to my phone. It had been there all night. But I didn’t plug it in.

It occurs to me that many Christians go through life this way. We have the Bible. We may even have several Bibles. But if you don’t read the Bible and plug yourself in to God’s charger, your spiritual battery is going to die.

We have prayer available to us day or night, in any time at any place. If we have trusted in Christ as Savior we may come boldly to the throne of grace.  But how often do we? How often do we speak to our Heavenly Father, the Creator of the Universe?   Just having God available to us does not help us.  We must grasp the opportunity to speak with Him and read His Words.  Only then can we recharge and become useful to Him.

Conflation is the act of merging two sets of ideas into one. One website explains it as “negative or careless blending of two otherwise disconnected ideas.” In recent usage it means to confuse two ideas or events as being the same thing. An example would be Kellyanne Conway and her recent statement that “two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and they were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre.”  She most likely conflated the two Iraqi refugees in Bowling Green who pled guilty to terrorism in 2011 and the terrorist responsible for killing four marine recruiters in Chattanooga (which is NOT Bowling Green) in 2015.  She mixed them up in her mind into one event, even though they were two separate events separated by 200 miles of geography and four years of time. That’s conflation.

I mention this because the Pope, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, was guilty yesterday of conflating the morals and guidelines of the Bible given to individual people with the morals and guidelines of the Bible given to governments and nations.

The pope stated, “In the social and civil context as well, I appeal not to create walls, but to build bridges. To not respond to evil with evil. To defeat evil with good, the offense with forgiveness. A Christian would never say ‘you will pay for that.’ Never. That is not a Christian gesture. An offense you overcome with forgiveness. To live in peace with everyone.”

Is the pope wrong? Yes and no. While it is theologically correct that Christians are called to forgive, to live in peace with others, to defeat evil with good, and to build bridges, it is NOT theologically correct to conflate Christian ideals with civic policy and procedure.

Does this mean we should not promote Judeo-Christian values in our government? Not at all. I believe we should have a government that punishes certain sins (such as murder, rape, etc), not a government that forgives offenders continually. We should make laws that encourage people to live moral lives. But we should not expect the government to operate as an individual person should. For instance, Peter asked Christ how many times he should forgive his brother, and Christ’s response indicates that forgiveness should be limitless. Should this principle then be applied by the government when someone breaks the law repeatedly? No.

And that’s why we need a wall. We need secure borders so that we can enforce the rule of law among our own people. We need to keep people out who aren’t supposed to be here. I keep hearing about “the Christian thing to do” as it relates to foreign relations, immigration, etc. People who use those words to refer to the policies of the United States government are conflating guidelines given in the Bible to individuals with guidelines given to the government in general.

The United States is not a “Christian Nation.” It is a nation that has Christian citizens. Even if every single citizen was Christian, it would still not be a “Christian Nation”, it would be a nation made up of Christians. It seems like I’m splitting hairs, but it’s an important distinction. You see, being American does not have anything to do with your status with God as a Christian or non-Christian.

The United States is being invaded right now by people who don’t belong here. I know that on the surface that sounds racist, but it’s not. As an example, let’s just look at ethnic Mexicans. I’m saying that the American citizens of Mexican descent belong here, whereas those of Mexican descent who are NOT American citizens (or have permission from the government to be here) do NOT belong here. Now, is that racist? Obviously not. Ethnicity has nothing to do with my determination regarding who belongs here and who doesn’t. I am simply interested in protecting the rights of United States citizens from those who are here illegally.

I don’t agree with Trump on everything, but I do agree that we need to secure our borders. What to do about the people who are already here illegally is a different question, but the first step is to prevent any further influx. And in that the pope is wrong: as a country we should NOT be building bridges, we SHOULD be building walls.

We are sad that Carrie Fisher died.  It IS sad whenever someone dies, especially for those of us who will miss her.  We fans will miss her, but not as much as her family and friends.   My thoughts are with her family and I have been praying for them for the past week and will continue to do so.

That being said, there’s a whole lot of nonsense flowing around Facebook, Twitter, and the internet in general about how she is now “one with the Force” and people saying “May the Force be with her.”  I’ve even seen Christian friends posting stuff like that, which bothers me, because they know better.  “The Force” is a fictional concept which has no basis in reality and should not be used when speaking seriously about the real death of a human being.  If I were one of her family and friends I would be insulted if someone came up to me and said, “She’s with the Force.”

Let’s get one thing straight:  it doesn’t matter that she was part of one of the most successful film franchises ever.  It doesn’t matter that she was famous.  It doesn’t matter that she was loved and adored by millions of fans.

At the moment of her death, only one thing mattered:  did she trust in Christ as Savior while she was alive?  If she did, then she is rejoicing in heaven with the Lord, the angels, and all the other saved people who have died.    If she did not, then she is suffering in hell for eternity.   Those are the only two options.

Am I being cruel or unkind by pointing this out?  I don’t think so.  If your dad died of lung cancer from heavy smoking would I be cruel to encourage you to avoid smoking?  No.  Even though the time has passed for Carrie Fisher to make her decision (whatever she decided: her destination is set in stone), it is not too late for you.  When you die, will you want to spend eternity with God or an eternity of suffering?  Your choice.  And every day just over 151,000 peoples’ choice is solidified for all eternity.

CS Lewis said “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened.”

So while we mourn the passing of Carrie Fisher, Alan Rickman, and so many others this year, remember that every single one of us will die, and nothing we do on earth will matter more than our relationship (or lack thereof) with Jesus Christ.