22Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. (Luke 6:22, King James Version)
An article that caught my eye recently was the Eagle News “Preacher draws a crowd on campus Monday".
This preacher, Micah Armstrong, was basically preaching the standard message of salvation through Jesus Christ or else it is Hell. Now, obviously many reading this wouldn’t agree with him, but it is the standard evangelical theology.
That wasn’t really what caught my eye, though. It was the quote from a student, “I believe in the entire book (the Bible), but I believe that this guy’s representation is completely hypocritical. I think he definitely doesn’t walk and love and this is really saddening that this is what people think of when they think of Christians. This is people’s perceptions: bigots like this.”
“Bigot”? For warning people that they need to fear God? That Jesus is the only way?
Maybe the article didn’t reflect what Armstrong was preaching. However, it more likely shows that even a somewhat distorted view of Christianity isn’t popular. It never will be.
Jeremiah suffered great trials by the hands of those who hated him for preaching the message God gave him. Many of the prophets were killed.
The Pharisees hated Jesus for His message and killed Him as well.
When we tell people they must repent, that isn’t popular either. Just look at some of the comments on this blog in the past couple of months. Some people love their sin more than they love God!
There will come a time when people will be persecuted for preaching that this nation must repent. People will be hunted down and killed for it. Are you close enough to God to endure?