Dec 27, 2004

The Gap Between Faith and Commitment

I'm sure most of you folks remember Janet Jackson's infamous Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction. After her right breast was exposed on live TV, the Federal Communications Commission received a surge in the number of complaints about broadcast indecency.

From January to December of this year, the agency estimated it had received 1,068,767 complaints. The Super Bowl broadcast accounted for more than 540,000 complaints, according to commissioners' statements.

 A few weeks ago it was revealed that the vast majority of these grievances were produced by one single activist group. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, 99.9 percent of these indecency complaints were filed by the Parents Television Council. In 2003, the group accounted for 99.8 percent of the complaints received by the FCC.

Because I had seen how the Super Bowl incident caused an uproar in the Christian media, the news that PTC was the only group that took action stunned me. From my experience with Rapture Ready, I knew the willingness of the average believer to take action was low, but I would have never guessed the commitment level would be as dismal as the figures indicated by the FCC report.

There are around 20,000 Christian organizations in America, and it is obvious that very few joined the PTC in petitioning the FCC to take action against indecency. The music world must now realize that the religious right is a paper tiger.

Christians love to complain about the influence that homosexual groups have on society. These gay groups claim they represent 10 percent of the population, while believers commonly argue that number only amounts to around 2 percent.

Considering the ease with which homosexual activists have been able to outmaneuver the body of Christ, I truly wish the 10 percent figure was correct. Since 82 percent of the population categorizes itself in the Christian camp, it is scandalous that a group a fraction of our size is frequently able to get the advantage over us.

For several years I've been trying to figure out why so many people I once knew as believers had suddenly decided that Jesus no longer was their Savior and chose to disassociate themselves from Him. It's my observation that what causes this sudden abandonment of the faith is the lack the commitment.

Someone can appear to be a believer for many years, but at some point a conflict arises that forces the person to make a decision that puts God lower on his or her list of priorities.

I knew one man who, for several years, shared my interest in prophecy. During the 1980s and 1990s we frequently had long conversations about prophecy. This past April, I learned that his sister was in dire financial straits because of a medical condition, and yet he deliberately neglected to offer her any type of assistance.

Because he was a wealthy man, I felt compelled to ask him to explain his lack of concern for his sister. His answer gave me an insight into the reason many people fail to live up to what it means to be followers of Christ.

He told me, "I can't help her because I have two daughters to take care of." His daughters were married, in their 30s, and had lucrative careers. After talking with him, I concluded that he loved money more than he loved his sister. I could also see that he loved himself more than he loved his own flesh and blood because his ultimate goal was to buy his daughters' love with the money he was planning to leave them someday.

The Bible very clearly states that this man is in serious error: "But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel" (1 Tim. 5:8).

A person can have an endless amount of faith in the power of God, but if he is unwilling to manifest that trust in a positive way, his faith is ultimately bankrupt. I challenge everyone to test your own faith. I'm sure some folks might be shocked to learn that their devotion to Christianity has limits in certain areas.

Several times in the past few years I've mentioned a one-tenth of one percent rule. In case after case, I find that the number of Christians who are actively involved in doing something productive for the Kingdom of God is less than 0.01 percent.

I don't have the ability to counsel everyone who visits Rapture Ready on what they are doing for the Kingdom of God. All I can do is point out the likelihood that they are on the 99.9 percent inactive list.

To be a productive Christian doesn't require a special gift or mandate from above. All it takes is a little bit of will power and one small step in the right direction to break free from crowd.

Because good explanations are in such short supply these days, I decided to detail three good causes I've been involved with in just the past few days. I'm not trying to toot my own horn. My goal is give you ideas of what types of actions an end-time mindset can generate:

The retail chain Target was in the news for deciding to replace "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays." I sent the following complaint to guest.relations@target.com:

"Your decision to substitute 'Happy Holidays' in place of 'Merry Christmas' deeply distresses me. If you cannot say 'Merry Christmas' to the vast majority of the American public that identifies itself as Christian, I don't think you folks need my future holiday business."

I mailed a used laptop to a pastor in Africa so he could use it in sharing the Gospel with churches he travels to. We had done this before, and found it to be beneficial to a region where printed materials are in very short supply.

I provided a Christmas financial gift to help my grandmother purchase medication she needs to control a heart condition. Just like in case of the man I cited earlier, none of my relations saw fit to help her out.

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?" (Matt. 7:21-22).
-- Todd

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Secularism and the Antichrist Spirit

The rift that has so divided the United States politically has come down to a place we can pinpoint. The cause has now been exposed, and it is prophetic in its timing. The ideological rift in America I once likened to the Great Divide in the Rocky Mountains. This is the location where a wood chip placed in water flows either into the Pacific or the Atlantic, by way of the Gulf, depending, theoretically, upon which side of a stream flowing along the Divide the chip is placed. Today, the Great Divide, in theological terms, that has seemingly torn one part of America from another is cocooned within a name. That name is Jesus Christ.

Jesus has become the focus point for all that divides this nation; He is swiftly becoming the dividing point that divides the entire world. This is not to say the divide is in equal parts. Those who despise the name of Jesus and all that He stands for far and away outnumber those who cherish His name. Jesus said that His first coming as that baby at Bethlehem was to accomplish just this purpose. He said:

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me" (Matt. 10: 34-40).

Almost every day since well before the presidential election just past, I have received e-mails accusing me and raptureready.com of presenting a false Jesus. "The Jesus I know is a Jesus of love, who came to bring peace. He would never condemn anyone, and would actually condemn you," they declare, (meaning me) "for besmirching His name," when I proclaim that God must deal with unrepented-of sin. My critics ask things like: "Just who do you think you are to judge someone?"

I usually reply that I'm but a messenger of what God says about sin. But, sinners have always killed the messengers who bring God's sin-condemning message, if they have been given opportunity. The Bible is replete with accounts of this taking place. Jesus, himself, was the ultimate example of sinners killing the messenger.

This is because Jesus came to rip people from their sin. This means, as He preached in the above Scripture passages, that no one can love this world and the things of this world while rejecting the Savior of the world -himself. He is God the Father's way of  redemption for sin that separates people from himself -the Only Way (John 14:6).

We are confronted at this moment in history with this great tearing away -God's people from those against God. America and all of Planet Earth are in the process of prophetic separation, engendered by Jesus himself. We hear about it more and more. The painful tearing was particularly evident during this Christmas season.

Never in my memory has there been such an effort to do away with the name of Jesus as it is attached to the season. Pundits call it something like "the secularizing of the holidays." The "secularists" vs. the "religionists," is the implication by media. The media is in league with the secularists who cry it is unfair to all who believe in other religions than Christianity to mention the name of Jesus Christ. I don't have to go into the many attempts that have been made this Christmas season to bring about a "secular" slant for the holiday we have for centuries known as "Christmas," the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. You know about them all too well.

It is an extension of the assault on Christ's influence on humanity begun within the last few decades, when they determined to do away with B.C., and A.D. for dating history, choosing to replace these with BCE and CE (Before Common Era, and Common Era). What it all boils down to, prophetically, is that we are in the full-blown throes of the "spirit of Antichrist," as John the apostle and prophet forewarned:

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world." (1 John 4: 1-3)

The spirit of Antichrist is alive and thriving within the sin-darkened souls of the "secularists" who want to destroy everything associated with Jesus Christ. The prophesied war that will end on the Plain of Jezreel at the Battle of Armageddon is beginning to boil in its early stages. Jesus is not the enemies' only target. The nation of Israel and the Jewish race that brought God into the world in the flesh are targets as well. But, that same Jesus will one day soon reign and rule over the Millennial Earth. Then the words of the hymn will at last ring absolutely true: "Joy to the world, the Lord is come.Let Earth receive her King!"

--Terry