The Twisted Logic Regarding Ferguson
Are Christians to have compassion on those involved in
the anarchy of Ferguson and around the country?
Absolutely yes! Are Christians to
have love towards them? Again,
absolutely yes. But this is where many
jump off the cliff and end up with a twisted logic that contradicts the
Scriptures and Christian principles.
Let me explain. To
love and to have compassion is not the same as to support, condone, excuse or
justify what is clearly wrong and evil. This is a prevailing fallacy of our culture. Many religious leaders want to jump from
compassion and love to excuse, justify, call for tolerance and condemn the
police and any harsh treatment of the anarchists.
Two things are at play here. First, liberals see and respond to things
purely on the basis of feelings and emotions, but not on the basis of facts and
truth. In fact, they flee from these as
being unloving or intolerant. They
create a false dichotomy between love and truth and between love and punishment
as though these are exclusive of each other and cannot exist together.
Secondly, they ”…twist the Scriptures to their own
destruction.” (2 Pet 3:16) A general survey of the Old Testament is a
clear testimony of God’s love being expressed in punishment, judgment and even
destruction of evil and rebellious people.
The judgment placed on Adam and Eve was an expression of His love. No excuses for their actions, no justification,
only loving punishment on the whole human race.
It is only in judgment that salvation becomes a possibility – not in
excuses.
Let’s look at some of these twisted usages of
Scripture. First, they talk about the
teachings of Jesus on love and compassion and mercy. What they fail to see is that the love,
compassion and mercy of the Saviour were extended to those who repented and
sought to turn around. He never told
Herod or Judas, “your sins are forgiven you, go and sin no more”. He never condoned or justified wrongdoing
but called all men everywhere to repentance.
When the Saviour saw the crowds as sheep having no
shepherd and had compassion on them He was not looking at anarchists who rob,
steal and kill. He was looking at His chosen
flock of Israel, the Old Testament Church, whose spiritual leaders had ceased
to tell them the truth concerning their Messiah. Jesus did not bless or condone or call for
tolerance toward anarchy but He had compassion on His chosen people whose
shepherds had betrayed the truth.
When Jesus tells us to have compassion on the homeless, orphans
and widows and our “neighbor” He is not talking about robbers, looters,
murderers and anarchists who have no repentance and who persist in evil, hatred,
destruction and rebellion against God ordained authority.
When Jesus tells us to turn the other check and not
strike back, He is talking to His people, His followers, about how they are to
respond to evildoers who persecute them for the sake of their obedience to
God. He is not telling us to be tolerant,
loving and accepting of hatred, anarchy, looting, killing, and all manner of
evil doing. It is about enduring
persecution for the sake of His name.
This has no application at all with what has happened in Ferguson. If you think it does, take a Black Panther
into your home to feed, clothe and shelter.
And if it does, why shouldn’t we end punishment for all crime. Let’s have compassion on the man who breaks
into your house and rapes your wife and kills your children or the man who robs
banks or abuses children.
When Jesus sent His disciples out to preach He told them
to accept and bless those who would hear and repent but to reject and wipe the
dust from their feet for those who persisted in their evil because the judgment
of God would fall upon them.
So, much of the Scriptures used by the liberal so called
compassionate crowd are references to how Christians are to respond to
persecution, not how society is to respond to anarchy. Compassion without truth is not compassion at
all. The person who tells people to flee
a burning building is compassionate, not the one who says, “bless your heart, I
understand why you are sitting here and I want you to know I love you and feel
your pain.” Love would tell all who love
the truth to flee from and reject the anarchy of Ferguson.
The Bible does have something to say about God’s attitude
towards evil, blasphemy, murder, stealing and rebellion. But you will not hear any of these Scriptures
quoted by the “compassionate ones”.
Government is an institution divinely instituted for the
punishment of evil doers and we are told in 1 Peter 2:13-14, “Submit yourselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake; whether it be to the king as
supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment
of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.”
Rebellion against lawfulness is described in the Bible as
a sin worse than witchcraft.
We read in Philippians 3:18-19: “ For many walk, of whom I
have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, [yes St. Paul had
compassion for them] that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ; whose
end is destruction, whose God is their belly, [carnal flesh] and whose glory is
in their shame, who mind earthly things”
Listen to the alarming words of Saint Peter in 2 Peter 2:
2- 17:
And many shall follow their pernicious
ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
And through covetousness shall they
with feigned [fake/false] words make merchandise of you [use you to their own
end]; whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation
slumbereth not.
For if God spared not the angels that
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved unto judgment;
And spared not the old world but save
Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon
the world of the ungodly;
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah
into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those
that after should live ungodly;
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the
filthy manner of life of the wicked; For
that righteous man in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to
day with their unlawful deeds...But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly parish in their own corruption...
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the
godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to
be punished.
The words and actions of the
“compassionate” religious leaders in response to Ferguson reflect the spirit
and age of this world, espousing a false peace, love and justice, which is the
spirit of the anti-Christ. Their words
reflect Scripture only in as much as they twist and pervert the Scriptures to
their own end.
