In these times of changing private and public values in modern society, some honorable righteous people seeking truth are asking the question:
“Are Christians required by scripture to remain silent and never take sides publicly against institutions, government administrations, as well as persons of power within a government who seek to influence society to accept values that are evil by biblical standards?”
Or, phrased another way, the question is:
“Are Christians mandated to maintain neutrality to anything going on in society? Is there such a scriptural mandate even if the thing or person in question is extremely vile/wicked? and even if the result of raising no objection would allow wickedness to proceed unchallenged in taking control of private and public entities in society?
Let us pause and provide a definition of the word “Society” from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
“a community, nation, or broad grouping of people having common traditions, institutions, and collective activities and interests”
Let’s summarize some scripture passages to see what examples exist in the Bible :
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Matthew 14:1-12
Summary –
A brave man of God publicly reproves the governor (Herod the tetrarch) for unlawfully taking his sister-in-law as his wife.
SECTION-2
2 Samuel chapter 12
Summary –
Nathan exposes King David’s deed as evil in that the king misused the military to have an innocent man put to death so that he could take the man’s beautiful wife for himself.
Nathan vocalizes God’s condemnation of David in verse 9:
“… You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own…”
In verse 10 there’s David’s punishment that God has Nathan pronounce:
“…the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the
wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own…’”
SECTION-3
The biblical book of Esther
Summary –
A well-connected slick political character (Haman) who is in the governing administration of the Persian empire concocts a diabolical plan to harm Jewish people throughout the empire. A beautiful Jewish lady who rose in the ranks of the imperial court becoming queen, exposed Haman calling him wicked in front of the king
which ultimately resulted in Haman’s downfall and the deliverance of Esther’s people.
Esther 7:3-6
3 Then Esther the queen answered and said, If I have found favour in thy sight, O king,
and if it please the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request:
4 For we are sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, to be slain, and to perish.
But if we had been sold for bondmen and bondwomen,
I had held my tongue, although the enemy could not countervail the king’s damage.
5 Then the king Ahasuerus answered and said unto Esther the queen, Who is he,
and where is he, that durst presume in his heart to do so?
6 And Esther said, The adversary and enemy is this wicked Haman.
Then Haman was afraid before the king and the queen.
SECTION-4
Are those who believe Christians are not to take sides regarding issues in society saying that early 20th century German Christians, without exception, would have been wrong to take sides against the “Chancellor of the Reich”(Adolf Hitler’s official government title), should those German Christians have remained neutral so as to maintain unity and harmony with their fellow citizens who were members of the Nazi political party? Are we to believe that Christians should have turned a blind eye to anything Adolf Hitler and his administration was doing, even the murder of millions of Jews.
Or, bringing it closer to home, are those who believe Christians should not take sides regarding issues in society saying that Christians were wrong to publicly side against racial oppression of Black people that had been codified into law during the 20th century by certain politicians in America? There were, and still are, some in America who feel that America’s historical system of enslavement of Africans was not all that bad. I’ll spare you the conversation I had with a guide at a plantation built in the swamp in the Deep South that had been restored for visitors to tour the master’s mansion and also the slaves’ shack.
On a personal note, I have absolutely no doubt that the door being open to me during the late 20th century, to study in one of the premier universities in America and to graduate from a technical degree program in the same class as Apple cofounder was in significant part due to those who took a side in the public struggle against the legalized racism prevalent for many years in 20th Century American society where it was acceptable to restrict Blacks from access to institutions of learning.
SECTION-5
Some may say, “I’ll just be faithful to God and never say anything to anyone that could cause offense and thereby eliminate the possibility of getting into conflict with anyone regarding anything going on in the world”
I don’t mean to discourage any from living for God, but you must understand that as you press forward to seek God’s will for every facet of your life, you become more and more a bright light in a dark world. And, there will be some drawn to that light and want to know the God that has transformed you. At the same time, those who love darkness will do things that would invade your sphere to extinguish your light and the godly standard of holiness represented in your manner of living.
Daniel 3:3-6
Then the princes, the governors, and captains, the judges, the treasurers, the
counsellors, the sheriffs, and all the rulers of the provinces, were gathered together
unto the dedication of the image that Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up; and they
stood before the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up.
Then an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages,
That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery,
dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the golden image that
Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:
And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst
of a burning fiery furnace.
The result was that 3 believers in the true God publicly refused to go along with the command to worship the image. I’m sure they knew this would enrage the king, but they still took a stand against the worship of the golden image.
SECTION-6
But you may say “that was long ago, that kind of stuff doesn’t happen today.”
I beg to differ, you have girls and women being pressured to share locker rooms and undress in front of men who claim they’re females. Young female athletes who oppose having to undress in front of men have their educational careers threatened and have even been required to take “re-education training” to reverse their objections to not wanting to undress in front of men.
In one of many cases, a woman was at a spa in the private space assigned strictly for women when, in her description, a naked man comes into the ladies’ space parading around with his male member fully exposed and upright. The lady complained to the spa’s management and on the video recording the lady took with her phone, the management responded that nothing could be done about the man as California state law allowed him to invade the ladies’ area.
Well, here in North Carolina, my adoptive state passed a law that men did not have the right to go into restrooms designated for ladies. The result was that a very “Progressive” federal government administration sued the state of North Carolina. Many of us Christians descended on city hall of the largest city in the state to peacefully protest the position of the federal government and to speak publicly in a forum the local government had made available for public comment. I recall a few professing Christians in unity with the men who had showed up in ladies dresses wanting access to use ladies’ restrooms along with our wives and daughters; I find that I could not support nor ignore normalizing & legalizing behavior that the Bible strongly condemns (see 1 Corinthians 6:9). At this same event, at city hall, a man went into the ladies’ restroom resulting in two girls fleeing out of the restroom in terror. The police got involved and removed the man.
Are some Christian now teaching that people are wrong for taking sides against public libraries being used by those who want to invite our little grandchildren to “story time” conducted by Drag Queens? or Drag Queens giving demonstrations to little children on how to “twerk” (an erotic sexual dance)? This radical behavior is not theoretical, it is already happening in communities.
Or there’s the 4 year old girl who went home crying and confused because she thought she was going to turn into a boy, following a public school teacher introducing books and teaching about transgender to little kids. You best believe following the harm and confusion caused the little children, that parents were very much taking a side and publicly voicing their opinion with the school administration/governing board.
There are people in America at the highest levels of society who are pressing the reversal of decency, and they are having some measure of success in twisting the minds of many in society.
There was an incident where my youngest brother and another male family member were going into the men’s public toilet and two women were attempting to follow right behind my brother and male family member into the men’s public toilet. My family member challenged/questioned the two women who relented and said they wouldn’t go into the men’s toilet this time; the undercurrent of what the ladies meant was that they would go into the men’s public toilet the next time, apparently if there was less opposition.
Another incident, when traveling in the South (in the USA), I stopped in a small Southern town right off the highway to use the service station restroom. Because there was a lady already in the service station’s one restroom, I waited outside until the lady exited the restroom. At which point this professional looking well dressed Caucasian lady who looked to be in her 30’s tried to assure me that it would be totally fine for me to come into the restroom with her. I tell you now in Southern American English “That Ain’t Gonna Happen.”
SECTION-7
BUT WHAT DOES GOD DO IF A SOCIETY IS WHOLELY OVERTAKEN BY WICKEDNESS?
There are multiple possibilities of what might occur within God’s sovereign will.
- as in the book of Jonah, God might send a person to publicly tell a society that their great wickedness will
result in their destruction unless they repent. On a side note, Jonah didn’t want to go and publicly
warn the people of Nineveh to turn from from their wickedness, God had to force Jonah to do it. - or God might send horrible cataclysmic destruction as he did to Sodom
- or God might do other things like allow a society to be overrun by invading enemies as he did repeatedly in the Bible
- there are a variety of other things God can do as well
SECTION 8
Some Christians suppose that we should never openly oppose wrong or wrong people for the sake of brotherly unity.
If that doctrine be true, what will we do with Jesus and what he did on a number of occasions to call out wicked leaders in first century Palestine.
Here’s one example of what I refer you to:
Matthew 23:27
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like
whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are
full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.
CONCLUSION:
I don’t find that it is necessarily a sin to want to shut away from all the issues in society. I would even confess that there is an appeal to me of the way of life Moses had in his 2nd stage of life: I too would love to live in relative quiet solitude, on the backside of the mountain herding my flock. However, God’s plan was for Moses to face off and confront the Egyptian government and not remain in solitude and incognito .
No, I have not seen a burning bush, but many years ago before most people even knew what the Internet was, God placed Holiness.com in my hands. By what God placed in my hands, people began reaching out to me from around the world (North America; South America; Asia; Africa; Eastern Europe; and Western Europe) many simply wanting help in how to apply the Bible to their lives and how to deal with real issues and questions they face in their personal lives and in their public lives in society.
Biblical holiness is a way of life that is not restricted to what we do on Sunday morning in church, or behind the walls of our home, but biblical holiness is to permeate our being and reflect in our private lives and in the public square of society.