All are welcome, come as you are

Driving to a local bank to deposit a check during my lunchbreak yesterday, I was waiting at a railroad crossing and saw a sign in someone’s yard that caught my attention. It was a relatively large corrugated plastic sign, like the “Jesus is alive” yard signs that dot front lawns all over this area, but about twice as large. Normally I wouldn’t have paid much mind, and might not have even noticed it, except it said in large rainbow-colored letters “God loves everyone” This was in front of a beautiful older house in the nicer part of one of the small mill towns near where I live, and surprisingly there wasn’t the requisite rainbow flad attached to the front porch columns.

Seeing the sign made me think about the banners that one of the local churches has been putting out lately along the main road through another nearby mill town, proclaiming “Come as you are” and catching my eye every time I drive through town. As I completed my business at the bank, I kept thinking about those two signs and the message that they are sending. I am a born-again Christian, saved from my sins by the blood of Jesus Christ, and at face value, I agree with what those signs said. God does love us, otherwise he would have smote all of us off the earth long ago. We are also invited to come to the Lord as we are- we are all filthy and despicable creatures, which is why we need His grace to wash us clean and save us. I hope that sign is just an honest attempt to get people in church to hear the Word. Moving beyond that first impression, the more I thought about it, I started thinking about the problems with the subtler message sent in today’s world by both of those signs.

We ARE supposed to love our neighbor, as it is written in Matthew 22:36-40

“Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Since we are instructed to love our neighbor, how should we treat them? Popular opinion today seems to be that we are supposed to support whatever form of mental illness or degeneracy that they have going on in their lives and never show them the error of their ways, but this is not biblical, nor is it how you act towards someone you love. If you have a serious illness, you seek to treat it and correct what is wrong in order to avoid great harm or death. If you have mental issues, you would seek help and/or treatment in order to avoid harm to yourself or others. If we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, we should be telling them how to cure the deadly problems in their lives before it is too late. How many of us, if we knew that us or a family member were infected with a 100% fatal disease, but with a cure that was free for all to have, would ignore all warnings and allow it to consume our lives? Since none of us would do such a foolhardy thing, why do we sit idly by and allow those around us to be slowly consumed by something that will surely cause them to perish, rather than trying to lead them to the cure? We certainly don’t show them the love that we are instructed to show them when we allow them to suffer through the sin in their lives.

When a person is truly saved, there WILL be a change in the way that they live, as they have been saved from the corrosive and toxic consequences of their sin. It is ok that that person came as they were, but they should not, and cannot remain that way. Popular Christianity running headlong with the false idea that you can be a Christian and maintain, even promote the same sinful behaviors as before, and it is completely wrong. I would argue that you will not find a true born-again Christian who is ok with living a homosexual lifestyle, having “gender reassignment” surgery (by the way, you can change up gender roles, as gender is a social construct, but you cannot change sex, as it is a biological function and is determined before we are ever born into this broken world. That, however is a topic for another day), living in open addiction, etc. Anyone who tells you that those behaviors, or others that the Bible clearly warns against, are ok for a Christian to partake in, should be avoided.

Tell them the truth, straight from the Bible, but don’t get wrapped up arguing with them if they refuse to accept the Word. A friend once told me that because Jesus talked with the Pharisees that we should constantly be debating those who spread false doctrine and refuse to accept the truth. We ARE supposed to spread the Word, but there is a difference between spreading the word and debating whether it is the Truth or not- Jesus spoke Truth and refuted the Pharisees, he didn’t debate whether it was the Truth or not. Two passages that I believe are relevant here are:

Matthew 18:15-17

“Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.”

Roman 16: 17-18

“Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.”

If someone willfully persists in spreading false doctrine after being shown the error of their ways, we are to stay away from them and their teachings. All among us, from the strongest to the least, are susceptible to being led astray if we consume their false teachings, so we must avoid them at all costs.

Borrowing a saying from my pastor, popular Christianity is not biblical, and biblical Christianity is not popular. So many have been conned into believing that, since we are supposed to spread the gospel and bring others to Christ, that we need to accept, and even be involved in every kind of hedonism and debauchery that the world has to offer in order to reach those people. I have had friends who tried to back this line of thinking by using the example of Jesus and Zacchaeus. The problem with using this argument is that Jesus went to Zacchaeus, and Zacchaeus changed, he did not ignore Jesus and keep up with his same behavior. Jesus also didn’t sit down and involve himself in Zacchaeus’s cheating and theft- he called him away from those things. We are called to spread the word, even to the dark and despicable places we don’t necessarily want to go, but we are not to be a part of what happens there. The folks standing outside of drag shows and preaching the gospel are doing good- they aren’t hanging out in the show and having drinks while watching the performance, they are calling people OUT of sin, not partaking alongside them.  Revelation tells us regarding Babylon in Revelation 18:4

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

We likely all are familiar with the judgement that is in store for Babylon, as well as what the punishment for sin is. So, what are we instructed to do when we show others the Gospel, and they will not accept it? Just to clarify, I am speaking of those who openly reject and mock the gift of salvation that is freely offered to us. Matthew 10:14 is pretty clear on that one:

“And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.”

We should put those behind us and not look back, lest we be lured into the trap that they are holding open for us. We all know what happened to Lot’s wife when she looked back to Sodom as they were leaving. Tarrying around the enemies of our Lord might not bring quite so instantaneous or spectacular of an end to us, but the ultimate result is the same.

We are to invite all to the saving grace of Jesus, as it is a gift that is free to all who accept it, all the way down to the lowest, most disgusting human on the planet, and without His grace we would all die an eternal death. Thankfully, we don’t have to suffer that fate, as Romans 6:23 tells us:

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Borrowing another saying from my pastor, everyone in hell will be there because they willfully chose to be there. They chose to reject the free gift that the Lord offers us, and the consequence is hell.

Seeing those two signs put me to thinking about all of the false teachings and ideas that we see in popular Christianity, and I fear that there are untold multitudes of souls being misled down a false road that is leading them ultimately to a spiritual death. I am no pastor, nor am I an overly knowledgeable biblical scholar, and I am certainly not a perfect and shining example of how a Christian should act, but I hope and pray that as Christians we will have a return in this country to teaching the Truth instead of the false teachings of modern pop culture Christianity, before it is too late for the folks being led astray.