The Honor Killing That Went Awry

 I used to think “honor killing” had to do with killing a Muslim daughter that committed a dreadful sin, like fornication or pregnancy, outside of marriage.  But an HBO Documentary Film, “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness” changed my mind. Please read the HBO analysis for your own enlightenment. 

 

More than 1000 women are murdered in Pakistan each year by male relatives who believe the victims have dishonored their families.  Here is the story of a young Pakistani woman who was the target of one of these honor killings.

 

It happened three years ago in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. It’s not a backwoods or ignorant area, since five million people live there. The girl, Saba, is 19. She is very pretty—on the right side of her face. On the left, it’s a different story.  A gunshot blew away her cheek from eye to jaw.  The surgeon did a terrible job of sewing it back together, but at least she is alive. The eye and teeth were miraculously untouched.  She also suffered a defensive wound on her right arm.  

 

It all began when she fell in love with Qaiser, a young man.  As typical in Muslim culture, they only met a few times, but talked on the phone.  He was kind and didn’t get angry, and she was in love.  Her father, at first, was planning their wedding. The problem was, her uncle objected.  “They are not of our status. They are poorer than us.”  He suggested that she should marry his brother-in-law.  A much older man whom she knew little about.

 

Since her male relatives had the last word, she was desperate.  Upon Qaiser’s parents’ suggestion, she decided to run away to Qaiser’s house, and his parents would see to it that they marry in court.  Which they did.   But her relatives paid a surprise visit the wedding day, before she got any “alone” time with him, and kidnapped her.  Her parents told her to “return home to uphold our family’s honor, then Qaiser can come and take you back honorably.” But she was fearful of what they might do to her.  Then her parents put their hand on the Quran and promised her they wouldn’t harm her.  That finally alleviated her fear.  But that night her uncle and father put her in the car, took her to the river, and started slapping and beating her.  She begged them for mercy, but her father put a pistol right at her brain, clutched her neck to keep her still, but she was able to tilt her face at the time he shot her, which means the shot ripped through her cheek instead.  Assuming she was dead, they put her in a bag and threw her in the river, and left.  But she fought off shock and amazingly climbed out. And she was taken to a hospital.

Authorities have laws against this, so now her father and uncle were on the run. Qaiser rushed to the hospital.  In an interview with Qaiser at the hospital, he said “my love for her is very strong.  I’d die without her.”  He seemed like a level-thinking guy, and in love. 

 

Police were assigned to guard her at the hospital.  She believed, because her parents took an oath on the Quran, Allah saved her.  “It is a sin. They broke that oath and now the wrath of God will fall upon them.  I will never forgive them, no matter what happens or who comes in the middle. Even if someone powerful asks me, I will not forgive them.”  Then she spoke of the big picture.  “The world should see this—brothers, sisters, parents…So this doesn’t happen again.  They should be shot in public in an open market. With God’s will, I am going to fight this case.”  The Sharia law in Pakistan, though supposedly modernized, has a "get out of jail free" card:  the court will release a killer if the family of the victim forgives him.  Cultural pressures usually saw to it that that was what happened.  And the local families were already beginning to lean heavily upon her to forgive her father and uncle in court.  If she did that, they won’t spend 20 years behind bars. This is for shooting her in the face, up-close and personal. So, forgiveness would let them off scot-free, of attempting to murder their own child because she wanted to live a quiet life in love with Qaiser her chosen husband.  Was her not wanting to marry upscale a reasonable excuse for killing your own daughter?  How perverse is that?  But there was more to it.  They accused her of rebelling against her parents.  The loss of honor to the parents was enough to make her worthy to die. (but it seems like they would lose honor, for shooting their daughter--evidently not so.) Family honor was more important than her life.  Also, the father and the uncle were the family breadwinners.  Taking them away would definitely make the family scrounge for a decent living.     

 

The investigative policeman, Ali Akbar, caught up with Saba’s father and uncle and jailed them awaiting trial.  He was also interviewed, and said, “In my opinion, Islam teaches nothing about “honor killing.”  It teaches that we should safeguard the rights of all human beings, be it a man or a woman.  God has given her the right to choose freely.  Yet on the simple matter of marrying the person she loved, she had to pay such a heavy price.  What happened here was totally against religious values."  Hey, here is a man with compassion.  I think he really believes that, since he went through the hassle of chasing and finding a dangerous criminal, who would most likely be released.   But the truth is, as I point out in another blog “Are the Christian God and Allah the Muslim God the Same?”  the Quran is really full of hatred and revenge, with only a few phrases about tolerance.  It is also highly misogynistic, and clearly points out that women are not as valuable or trustworthy as men.  It is easy to see how a perversity like honor killing could arise out of a culture rooted in the Quran as a foundation.  I firmly believe that the real God cannot bless such a culture, and that is why Pakistan remains one of the poorest countries on the planet.

 

Saba got no support from her family for wanting justice. So she went to live with her husband’s family.  In the interview with her sister Aqsa, who is about 16 I would guess, I was shocked to hear how assertive she was, backing up her parents.  There was no reticence at all, which is surprising considering how she watched while they deceived and tried to kill her very own sister: (Think about it: Someday that could be her). “All our family did was to preserve their integrity and honor.  Who can tolerate such betrayal from a daughter who runs away and marries without their consent?  Our family was respected by the entire community.  People who feared us now taunt us.”  (The use of the word “feared” is a telltale statement).  “We’ve stopped going anywhere …because of the shame she has brought upon us.  People say my father neglected his kids.”  (One could only wish he had done so).  Her sister's thinking was totally corrupted, thinking that the daughter was the betrayer.

 

Mom chimed in: “I could have scolded, explained to her. This is what happens when honor is at stake. No woman should disrespect others.  No woman should ruin her parents’ reputation.  This girl here (pointing lovingly to Aqsa), if she does this sort of thing, she will be beaten.  If she stays home, I will get her married in a good way.  I prayed to God, “My daughter has done this, make me die.”” So mom is unrepentant of her assistance to her murderous husband, and despite Aqsa’s loyalty to mom, her mom still threatened her too!  Mother love on display.

 

The interview with Maqsood, Saba’s father, and Muhammad, her uncle, in jail, was the strangest of all.  Here are her uncle’s words, which clearly show resentment that Saba lived: “What my brother did was absolutely right.  I guess she survived.  It was her destiny.”   Saba’s father was also totally unrepentant: “Whatever we did, we were obliged to do it.  She took away our honor.  I am an honorable man.  So I said no, I will kill you myself.  You are my daughter, I will kill you myself.  Why did you leave home with an outsider?  I haven’t seen the boy yet.  If I had seen him, I would have killed him too.  He has brought such destruction upon our home.  Just look.  I’m behind bars right now.”  (His logic about why he is in jail is beyond me).  The interviewer couldn’t resist.  “You’re locked up because you tried to kill your daughter.”  His answer: “Lady, Islam does not permit the girl to go out of the house.” (A total lie).  “Was she dying of hunger?  She got everything.”  Interviewer: “Does Islam permit murder?”  Reply: “No…”(actually, he was wrong; read the Quran.) “but where is it written that a girl can run away with a stranger?”  Interviewer: “What did you say to your wife?”  Reply: “I told her “I have gone and killed your daughter as per my desire.”  My wife cried.  What else could she do?   She is just my wife.”  About his family who he left potentially starving without a breadwinner if he does jail time: “Allah will provide for my family too.” 

 

Saba, with her husband and family, is content, to use her word.  I tend to believe her.  Qaiser’s mother said, “She’s my daughter now.”  As to the question of them being poorer: “We will live off what we have, and she can eat with us too.”  Saba says she’s heard that her father is asking for forgiveness.  Despite his brave words about honor earlier, he really doesn’t want to spend his life in jail--but he won’t condescend to speak with her.  At this point, she insists she still will not forgive him.  Her uncle did beg her forgiveness, but she told him to go away. 

 

Saba has a forward-thinking lawyer, who does many of his cases pro bono.  He feels that “honor killing” cases should be treated as any other murder/attempted murder case.  But Sharia law puts a misogynistic twist.  Most of the time the daughter is usually dead, so that makes it easy that the near relatives of the victim can get together and forgive the killer.  Her lawyer asserts: “That is one more reason why honor killings are rising.  This is not just Saba’s cause; it’s society’s cause.”  He believes that the judicial system should be changed, not to allow such compromise.  But it will take time to change people’s mind.   “Seeking justice is a long, drawn-out process, and women are at a disadvantage.”

 

Saba begins to relate the growing pressure on her: “They say we must listen to the influential and dominant men of our neighborhood.”  The male elders of the community play a major role in making the parties reach a compromise, and here is where the truth really comes out:  she is helpless to even speak and make her feelings known, since she is trained from birth to obey the men and not speak up.  The secular interviewer was an exception; the case drew nationwide coverage.  The elders expressed their dominance in refusing to meet with her; and they parroted the same charge as her father: she ran away, and society will not respect people who allow that with their daughter.  Her lawyer, in meeting with them, does a lame job of pleading the rights of the girl who is thrown away by her family.  But they sat there with arms folded, not an ounce of compassion on their faces, and they insisted that the real issues are honor “and land.”  (I don’t understand how land enters the picture here).  They did hint that, if honor is not maintained, that fights between families could grow worse.  An interesting statement; it makes me think that if a family kills off another (dishonorable) family, they might even have community support in taking their land. Why not, if killing is treated so lightly here?  They say, if Saba forgives, then everyone will live in peace.  (The thing is, both families were there, and they were all calm, and I never saw any inter-family hatred). What’s weird also is, everyone in that meeting was just talking like it was the day’s weather, despite this gross injustice staring them in the face.

 

The police officer had an intelligent word: If she forgives, “a message is sent that this crime is no big deal. The laws should be the same for everyone.”  I would add, if you always end in forgiveness, and freedom for the criminal, why should a police officer bother chasing the criminal?  As a result, his job status, which should be important for the community to maintain, would eventually deteriorate. You would not have good men wanting to be police officers with this kind of action going on.   

 

Qaiser is against a settlement—but here’s another ugly truth about their system:  his older brother handles everything.  And his elder brother wants to acquit the attempted killers.   Forgiveness, he says, are the “laws of the community,” whatever that is.  He was worried “if this escalates.”  This hints at what the elders said about inter-family fights. 

 

As you might have guessed by now, Saba, through the men in her family, caved in and forgave.  (Actually, they didn’t ask her opinion).  And HBO got an award for this stunning documentary.  In fact, at the awards ceremony, the prime minister of Pakistan showed up and announced that the perpetrators of honor killings must not be allowed to be forgiven by family members.  He would do what he could to change that Sharia law. 

 

But wait a minute, who really has the power to change Sharia?  Only the religious leaders and the community.  Mufti Kifayatullah, a leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a religious party, accepted that some Islamic laws were being misused to protect killers. But he said any reform attempts would be resisted.  "Removing Islamic laws shall never be tolerated, as this country came in to being in the name of Islam,” he said. “The religious parties will not allow the government to solve the problem in this way.”

 

So the honor killings go on, and even grow.  Some killings have gotten pretty brazen, such as the 2014 killing of a woman by her family right outside Lahore’s high court, no less.

 

Now you the reader, consider how all the main players in this drama believed in and invoked the support of Allah, their God. Yet look how their compassion was absent and their mind corrupted. There were only two people who wanted peace and love.  Yet they were almost killed for that.  Please read my other blog on the truth behind the Quran. Now tell me, dear reader, how “all religions lead to the same God.”  Contrast the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:43ff with the vengeful relatives:

 

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”

 

Is this the same God as Muslims call on for defense of these horrific actions?  Or should we take a word of advice from Matthew 7:16:  You will know them by their fruits.

 

Acknowledgement:  HBO Documentary Films, "A Girl in the River" (with added comment)

 

The Truth of Man

 

Here is a sermon by the late Dr. John MacArthur.  He asks the important question, "what's wrong with the current presentation of the gospel?"  Here are (mostly) his words.

There was recently a survey of ‘evangelicals.’  People were defined as evangelicals if they believed four things: if they believed the divinity of the Bible, if they believed Jesus, believed the gospel, and if they felt they were responsible to communicate the gospel to other people.  Well, it seems that the majority of ‘evangelicals’ really have no idea what they believe.  One survey question, “everyone is born innocent, agree or disagree?" 65% of evangelicals agreed.  Another: “the Bible is not literally true,” agree or disagree?  55% of evangelicals agreed!  “God accepts worship from all religions.”  56% agreed.  Finally, “Jesus was a good teacher, but not God.”  43% of evangelicals agreed!

All the answers above should have been “0%.” They should not agree with any of those questions. This is so shocking, the idea that anybody who presumably has a sound sense of doctrine could answer “agreed” to these untruths. How did we get to this sad point--'evangelicals’ who don’t even believe what is necessary to be saved, in some answers?   Dr. MacArthur believes “this is the legacy of our pastoral leadership.”  People don’t rise above their teachers.  Truth is, the evangelical churches, over the last 30 years, have been too busy trying to find ways not to offend non-Christians, trying to take the offenses out of the message.  Many churches design approaches to non-believers that don’t create hostility, or rejection.  But that voids the gospel of the truth.  And it does more, as we shall see.

Why do they do this?  Because the gospel is offensive.  It tells of all of our evil being so bad that it drove Jesus to the Cross. So, it forces us into a choice: Hate our sin nature, and run to God, seeking mercy; or, continue assuming that we are not evil, but more good than evil; reject Jesus’ words that disagree, and try to say you are a Christian by compartmentalizing which verses you read about Him. But at some point, hopefully the reality of the depth of our sin according to God’s Word will be read or presented bluntly to us. Some may then reject Christianity, and hate the Gospel. If you chose that mode, you would then assume most “Christians” are hypocrites, and dislike them intensely. This is what’s done by people that are proud to admit that they are non-believers.

Let’s study this further; start with John 15:18:

“If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

One thing that the disciples knew, the world hated Jesus.  We’re not just talking about pagans, but the Jews as well.  At that time, they professed to be followers of God.  Well, Jesus is God Incarnate.  But they were blind to that. Once they heard the message of Jesus and what He preached, they rejected it—and Him. But why the hate—toward Him who was (and is) the most merciful, compassionate, loving Person in all the world?  Here’s the answer, in blunt language in John 7:7:

The world…hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.

Looking into evil, a large group of Calvinists (John Calvin lived in the late 1500s) believe in the “Doctrine of Depravity.” It declares that everyone is sinful, and irreconcilable with God as such.  This agrees with Scripture. But teaching that doctrine brings out hate in Fallen Man--their dominant sin is Pride.  He creates an image of himself that escapes ultimate condemnation, spinning a web of delusions.  Man says that he is good—he will believe anything but that his ‘deeds are evil.’ This was compounded by Jesus telling the Jews, ‘You are even evil in your religion.’

You can see, in the Gospel of John, how their hate plays out.  In 5:16, the ‘offense’ was, He was healing people on the Sabbath.  He could have avoided much of the hate by only doing God’s work six days a week, but God doesn’t work under man’s restrictions.  Limiting God?  Who would do that?  In 5:18, He said the Jews were plotting already to kill Him.  Imagine, it’s only the fifth chapter of John!  And they wanted Him dead already.

Of equal offense to them was that He called God His Father, making Him equal with God.  They judged that as ‘blasphemy.’  Of course, that judgement was irrational, because His miraculous deeds, His extraordinary love for the downtrodden—and His resurrection from the dead-- proved He was more than human.  They had no proof of their challenge, ever.  Later in John, they tried to arrest Him, and they wanted to stone Him, but His time was not yet. That would come later.

Isaiah 53's prophecy says He was an offense, which came true. In their rejection of Jesus, they treated Him as nobody, nothing.  But He was popular. He was compassionate to widows, to the disabled, to the children.  He brought a message of eternal life and forgiveness. Because of that popularity, they couldn’t ignore Him. They challenged Him daily. When that didn’t work, there was nothing left except kill Him.  In John 8, Jesus tells them the nature of their hatred with another offensive declaration; He says “you cannot hear my words—you are of your father, the devil.” Many chose to not listen to another Word He said.  Now please don’t point the finger at the Jews in particular for their hate:  ALL OF US began life separated from God; our father was also the devil.  And he still is, unless we are truly saved.  We do not start out ‘innocent,’ you see?  A trait that we obtained from Adam. Jesus, in John 8:45, says, ‘Because it’s the truth, you can’t believe it.’ That truth, about our evil, always leads to a defensive irrationality. when we are told. We turn from Him, and we believe lies—because, as Jesus says, the devil—our father if we are not saved—is the father of lies.

This is a profound diagnosis of the human condition. The point is, we seldom hear it. More on that in a minute.

You may, like most, be offended at Dr. MacArthur’s words of your impossible condition as well.  Please don’t fall into the trap of excessive pride; face up to the truth.  Otherwise, it could cost you eternal life.

So the Jews concluded about Jesus, ‘you have a demon. Not us.’ But calling Him that is the worst blasphemy of all. Calling Him that was a terrible sin. Their world was inverted, perverse.

Dr. MacArthur gets back to his original point, the flaw in today's gospel.  Avoiding the offense. I don’t know what kind of strategy in evangelism you think you can devise to tell the truth and yet overcome irrational anger as soon as you hammer on the subject of evil; the truth is, you can’t strategize it.  The greatest Evangelist of all time, Jesus, had no strategy to bypass or soften reality.  He said we are sinful, dead, blind, ignorant, darkened to the Scriptural facts, and under satanic control. The truth is alien for most because it is seldom preached. .I can’t count the number of pastors I’ve heard who when they finally speak of sin, it was “the world’s sin.” As if his congregation is sinless and without doubt. “The world has horrible sins. Let me tell you about them”—but not you, they imply.

When we currently talk the gospel, we simply avoid certain subjects, like the depth of human sin--but that subject is covered vastly in Scripture. And it’s dangerous to dance around a critical subject; it’s not the whole Gospel anymore. Can we improve on God’s Gospel? You don’t change it saying that “culture is different”--but Man is the same in every culture.  To talk honestly about that takes courage, a willingness to obey Jesus who said we must tell the Truth and endure persecution like He did.  When their answer for the Truth is to hate us, we should train ourselves to say, that’s what we expect, a proof of the sinful characteristics of man. Let it roll off. You may lose a friend—but later events might make them remember your words. Be a good evangelist.  Jesus said we should rejoice upon rejection, even if our words seemingly had no effect; we presented the pure Gospel, not a watered-down half of the Gospel.  By telling the truth, we are willing to leave strategy to God. The Holy Spirit may give light to the sinner to whom we witnessed, or He may not. We did our part, sowing the Seed. It’s God who decides to bring light to the darkened mind.

(I must reveal my beliefs here; the hyper-beliefs of some Calvinists, namely, his acute belief in Total Depravity, leads to strange results.  The extremists of Calvin say that we have no capacity to receive the truth, until the Holy Spirit puts the spark of regeneration in us first.  The choice God makes is, who gets a spark by the Spirit, and who doesn’t. This decision is done by God randomly, without regard for our previous righteousness or non-righteousness.  Thus, God chooses who is picked to be saved and who is not saved (because if the Holy Spirit does not select us to ‘turn our light on,’ we end up in hell.)  I do not believe in this extreme; I consider it presents a non-Scriptural character of God as sending people to hell.  I follow Jacobus Arminius, who argued against Calvin in the late 1500s by stating that God gave us ‘prevenient grace,’ that He gave us free will to choose Him, even in our tragic sinful condition--if we desired to seek after Him.  Despite the bad news about the treatment of Arminius, and things done to him, he was a godly man.  But let’s not get sidetracked. 

Our subject in this paper is how our pastors have strayed from and watered down the whole gospel. They don’t talk about hell, or the severity of our sin and our need for repentance. We, as ‘laity,’ fear the hostility of people too—or, we don’t imagine people  getting saved from presenting a negative doctrine of their sin. So the feeling is, “how can we tell them about man's depravity, about hell and judgment?  They won’t think straight if we tell them that.  So let's try a different tact: Let’s avoid that subject.” 

Truth is, people in sin aren’t thinking straight to begin with.  You can’t do anything to cause them to think rationally or apply honestly. We are born that way. To deceive ourselves.

You, as a good evangelist, should turn away from this idea==burn the effort to make that bridge. You tell them that we begin our accountable life under eternal judgment.  Paul does that at the Areopagus on Mars Hill—as we wrote in our recent blog. It’s important that you see the city that God gave you as He sees it. Areopagus was reputed to be a city of great intellectual men. But God saw—and Paul saw--that the city was given over to idols (Acts 17). He preached from a position of recognizing their total ignorance of the Gospel. I’m sure many were turned off by his approach.

But what do you have now, instead? Here's the ‘current’ gospel:  Jesus wants you happy, He wants you successful. This is what you want.  He paid the price on the Cross for our sin—so He can set us free. Believing in Him means we gain heaven, so out of our love for Him, we should simply seek His will for all we do in all our lives. Out of our love we can also find true morality, and develop love for our Savior.

Notice that we left off the sinful condition that we’re born into, and how we need to beg mercy from Jesus from hell.  That is too important to miss. The problem with ‘emphasizing our benefits’ by ‘accepting’ Jesus is—what happens when the benefits don’t happen in this life? Then we can’t see a reason why we should continue to restrain the temptations of the world—because what do we need Jesus for? Well, from the certainty of hell. But nobody taught us that. Many churches are ruled by Satan; they teach we all have a divine spark. All we need to do is recognize it, and encourage its growth within us. Totally un-Scriptural. Total bull. A works-oriented version of the old ‘bring yourself up by your bootstraps’ fable. The truth is, we are incapable of self-reform. The Jews proved they couldn’t do it in the Old Testament. If we realize that, if we run to Jesus for mercy, that’s the first step of the real Gospel.

Also, how can we appreciate Jesus, truly love Him and worship Him, if all He does is pass out goodies like Santa Claus, just by a simple acceptance? Will there be enough incentive to stop sinning? I think not. Yet if we don’t be holy, how can we evangelize if our life and the pagan’s life are no different? The pagan won’t seek us for advice, if he feels the hurt from the devil’s treatment in the world system. They may be hurting, but why would they come to us, if they perceive that we are the same as them?

Pastors mention that in the second Coming, Jesus is the Judge, the Son of God, whose next appearance will give us the unchangeable decision of hell or heaven for us. Calvinistic pastors tell us that once we were saved, we are saved forever. So we don’t need to worry about hell or God’s judgment. But Scripture says otherwise. We should consider that once we are saved, but continue being ruled by sin, means we might never have been saved to begin with. Also, if we are not producing fruit for God, we could lose salvation too (John 15:5-6). Thus we shouldbe sober and spend time thinking about that: consider what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 13:5:

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you ar e disqualified. 

Disqualified means “rejected”—ie, rejected for heaven. Considering that we easily deceive ourselves, we should make a checklist of strengths and weaknesses of character, and be serious about asking God to show anywhere we have fallen short of holiness. Our goal is to be more holy, more like God, is it not? Well, that’s not a source of emphasis for many Calvinistic pastors. They say once we are saved, since we are always saved, our sin problem does not block us for heaven. I fear the lack of motivation to avoid sin might send many to hell. Explore your own mind. Is that what you believe too?  

The current 'gospel' twists the simple fact that Every word in Scripture—even the negative ones—are all true.  By pastors not preaching on some subjects, we follow along by not believing in those subjects. Pastors often cover God as an idol of their own making, a grandfatherly, forgiving type.  This is idolatry; it ignores the Old Testament God, who was a punisher of idolatry. And God doesn’t change. The 'gospel' today accepts pretended humility, and works, to gain righteousness; it even says He loves all religions—because Christians squirm to admit anything else (we don’t want to be intolerant)—so they assume, based on our scared silence, that it’s OK. Ah, the “fear of man.” But the fear of man is nothing compared to the fear of God. Jesus said we should never fear someone who could take our life; the Person we should fear is the One who can take our soul. And He is the same God, still jealous of our idols of greed, immorality, envy, etc. Contemplate on that.  We think “sincerity” is what counts. If we don’t get the gospel right, God will still appreciate our effort, and give us a pass. Today we believe “love” is an emotion. But love today is losing its backbone necessary for obedience to His commands. We think we abide in Him, yet we are not interested in what was important to Him, as it appears in Scripture. (See survey above).  It’s too hard to read for the ‘phone generation.’ So we fly by the seat of our emotions.

What pastors teach is a false and incomplete 'gospel' rampant in society.  Truth is, no other religion has the Bible's true doctrine, even false forms of ‘Christianity,’ even the Jews in Jesus’ time (they twisted the truths in Old Testament Scripture).  All popular gospels are based on works, or a feeble and mental-assent faith. This is dooming more people to hell, teaching that basically, we are good, or teaching that we can reform ourselves into a better life (or lives), and eventually, through purgatory or renewal or whatever, gain heaven. Most people go to church to relieve some guilt.  Most pastors don’t shake them from this fable.  People in the pews, who say they are Christian, if you give them hard questions (like, ‘tell us why you got a divorce’) show that they hate the truth—and thus reveal that they are NOT Christian.  Most pastors are deluded enough to believe that the people that are there regularly are Christian.  But the pew-sitters believe lies, like the survey above shows.  Many of their pastors would get fired if they preached the truth for more than one month straight. 

So it is in wealthy America. “We got our money because God loves us. God wouldn’t send to hell if He loves us.” Or will He? Consider Luke 19:41-4:

Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and level you, and your children within you, to the ground

We make a big deal out of the resurrection of Jesus’ friend Lazarus, and how Jesus wept—and so we should. But Jesus wept over Jerusalem here, and look at the chilling words in v. 44: “and level you, and your children within you, to the ground.” Does Jesus love little children? Of course He does. But that did not stop God from judging Jerusalem, full of rebellious people. It is estimated that one million people died at the hands of Roman soldiers in 70 AD, what Jesus is prophesying. Many of them were children. But their children went straight to heaven, into the arms of loving saints and angels. Better that than to take a chance on their rejection of our Lord, as their parents did, and end up in hell. We only look at this life. We are ‘probies’ in this life. God will examine us, and we should examine us, too, to see whether our faith in Jesus results in action—or whether we are ‘faking it.’ 

The best Scriptural summary for the Truth of Man might be: They don’t believe the Scripture is God’s Word—thus they declare, unknowingly, the logical conclusion that God is a liar, and not to be believed. Or He will forgive us our ignorance of Scripture. But God’s Word is so clear, it doesn’t allow ignorance. In Ephesians 4:1-3:

And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, ² in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air (Satan), the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

We are all hell-bound, unless we grasp Christ as our Savior and Lord of our lives, and hang onto Him with all we have.  Ignorance is not given a path, but is treated as sin. See Ephesians 4:18:

…having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;

Ephesians 4:19 adds the word “callous” in the ESV, which means our minds, unsaved, are scarred over so that we cannot sense the truth.  In Genesis 6, God destroyed humanity except eight people, saying all He saw was evil continually. Jeremiah 17:9 says our hearts are desperately wicked.  As we said in our recent blog, Paul laid out the whole Gospel.  The Old Testament does its part, too, in a complete presentation of the Gospel He is the same God, loving and judgmental.  Scripture spells out the sad facts and destination for us, without grasping closely to Him.  We don’t have to look far for it. 

Jesus raised the issues of hell and final judgment in EVERY chapter of Matthew, from chapter 3 to 25, for those who think He was meek and mild.

Just as Paul, Dr. MacArthur is laying out the Truth of Man: We must be reborn, as Jesus told Nicodemus. We cannot fix ourselves. Our “reforming,” trying to get 'good enough' for heaven, or not trying at all ‘because I got saved when I was 10,’ are not options.  Truly, we don’t know where the source that sparks our salvation comes from, that we ‘see the light,’ and get the real gospel. We are here maintaining simply the main point of the sermon; that we need to put the Truth of (sinful) Man back into our gospel.  We need it back into the gospel to appreciate the deep love and sacrifice of God, that He, sovereign and Creator, would even notice, even love our rebellious souls.  We need that aspect of the gospel to have the motivation to realize that we fall on Him for mercy. We want to forward His kingdom by anything He wants us to do.  Only by knowing all the gospel will we be eager to read Scripture to know more about our lover, if I may use the term.  Only with the true gospel will we be eager to follow our Lord’s commands, to please Him and to know what His morality really is. 

Today’s “gospel” leads to ‘mental assent’ salvation, not deep-rooted enough to fight off the worldliness.  If you still live in worldliness, you have idols—of materialism, of envy, of greed, of jealousy.  God does not save idolaters. Today’s gospel leads to a ‘Laodicean’ salvation, a lukewarm, mental assent, not a movement of the heart. Which is not a salvation at all; as Revelation 3 says, if that’s the case, He will vomit us out of His mouth.  We will not be part of His body when judgment day comes.  Let us spread the word.  The reason why churches have lost their power is because they mostly teach a false gospel. I urge you to read Scripture, and find out what Scripture really says.  Try the Gospel of Matthew first.  Your eternal life or hell depends on it. And if you communicate to others on this, you MUST include the Truth of Man.  Today's gospel doesn't work, so why not try something different?  Pray, and have your dedicated believers around you pray, that the Spirit will convert people's hearts, that they will see the light.  Come from death into life, if you read this and are unsaved.  Be free from sin, idolatry and pride.

 

 

 

 

 

What Begins the 7-year Final Period?

 Joel Richardson, an end-times author and evangelist to the Islamic peoples in the Mideast, has a great message that plainly lays out what specifically needs to happen that immediately triggers the 7-year tribulation. Here are his words, in summary.

Mr. Richardson’s first concern is that today’s well-known prophets of end-times should not “cry wolf” for a sign that is not Scriptural, or not a singular sign of the end times. Yes, Matthew 24 speaks of wars in the end times. Yes, it speaks of earthquakes and famines. None of these are accurate signs of the last seven years because they happen frequently. You cannot, every time a rocket is sent off between Israel and its Islamic neighbor, suddenly call out “this is now the last days.” That’s why it will be “crying wolf;” wars in the Mideast, and natural disasters, happen, sadly, too frequently. On the other hand, the Scriptural sign Richardson mentions is different; it happens only once.

Secondly, the trigger sign  will be world news. We should give thanks to God for being generous and providing such a clear, easy sign—that’s because He loves His children, and does not want us to endure those terrible times in the dark. 

Since Peter warned that “scoffers and mockers” would come in those days, then we have an important responsibility:  We need to believe Scripture so thoroughly that when this sign happens, we will boldly tell our neighbors and family—perhaps a few will get saved—both in this life and even eternally. That means we don’t go to them with uncertainly and say, “I have a theory…” Nor do we boast and say, “God told me….” But we say, “Scripture says this is the sign that begins the last seven years. With your permission, let me show you, and you can do your own prayer to see if God confirms you about it.” Perhaps, God will bless you so that you will see people’s lives—including their eternal lives—saved from death.

Keep in mind, the last days there will be miracles that Satan does. See Matthew 24:24:

²⁴ For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

We must be firmly in God’s Word, so as to not to look at the miracles, and follow Satan and end up slain by this powerful deception. With knowledge about the end times, we will not be lost, so as to follow Satan unwittingly, even to think that we are already in the last seven years when we are not. Such a confusion simply adds validity to the world’s scoffing.  Even as our nation gets worse, even if profound calamity struck our nation tomorrow, there is no call for prophesying something unless it lines up with Scripture.  Richardson says it doesn’t matter if you have an excellent prophetic track record; if you are not subjecting your personal ‘hearing from God’ to the clear guidance in Scripture, you are in falsehood. You need to study the Scriptures in context first, before you speak prophetically.

If you are a “pre-trib” believer (thinking the rapture occurs before the seven years), it wouldn’t hurt to read other excellent authors’ comments too, that believe differently than you do. Accept no doctrine about the end times without proof. To believe just like your denomination is not a guarantee of accuracy (there are many denominations with many eschatologies).  It is actually laziness. Hard study is worth it, when you are gambling your eternal life. 

Now to his main message, the events in Scripture that need to happen just before the 7-year final period and the Lord’s return.  First, to those who say “it’s impossible to figure it out from Scripture,” he says, think of history: Scripture laid out lots of data prior to Jesus’ birth, and it WAS noticed by many, including the Magi (see my blog on how the Magi could tell His time of birth by the position of the stars—they were astronomers as well).  On the other hand, it was those that relied on the “traditions of men” who failed to see Scriptural signs. Or those who had too much pride to accept the birth of a ‘poor nobody;’ or hearing prophecies from someone that the rabbis had not taught.

The point is, Scripture is full of prophecies about the future, just like Scripture was full of prophecies about when Jesus was born. Much of it is fantastic symbols, BUT much of it is plain and easy to understand too. God does it because He knows that we worry about the future. In those terrible last seven years, God understands we want to know, “How soon can we be free of this sadness and persecution?”

Now this is a good time to tell you: Mr. Richardson’s belief is that Jesus returns AFTER the tribulation, not before.  (See my series of three blogs that also proves that point.) That subject is not the point of this paper. Our purpose is, whatever you believe, you would clearly like to know when the 7 years is set to begin. For those of you who are pre-tribulation rapturists, you still want to know when those seven years will begin because you expect to get raptured at that point. For the rest of us, who believe Jesus won’t return until the seven years are over, there is another concern: We need to beware of miscounting when the 7 years began, which would make us start looking for Jesus ahead of time. An example would be, thinking that the “Abraham Accords” that Mr. Trump signed five years ago was the beginning of the seven years. That’s not so, simply because Mr. Trump cannot be the “little horn” or the Antichrist. Scripture elsewhere proves that; Look for Gog and Magog, and the North country in Scripture. Oh well. Another blog, another time. Jesus talks about such a result of that misfiring in Mark 13:5-6:

 And Jesus, answering them, began to say: “Take heed that no one deceives you. ⁶ For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many

So let’s talk about the sign that triggers the seven years. Note that there is one warning we get: there is a single sign, easy to find, that flashes us, giving us the exact date when the 7 years begins. If I successfully prove it to you, when that day comes, you will be eager, as I am, to set aside a special 7-year calendar to record the passage of each day, each month, as His arrival gets closer and closer. We may not have to wait the entire 7 years before Christ comes, see Matthew 24:22:

For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²² And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

The seven years will pass quickly, I suspect. Near the end, look to the heavens: He will arrive in the clouds! Are you ready for an eternity in heaven?

 If you, instead, reject the faith required, and seek your own way, how do you know if you are deceived from the miracles that Satan may do (Matthew 24:23-24), and take the satanic mark, in order to survive in this life—but it sends you to hell in the next life? Revelation 14:9-10 says:

Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 

That horrible thought, alone, will help you endure the 7 years of constant turbulence and danger, hanging on to your Savior for dear life, literally. From what Mr. Richardson has heard and has seen on media, many people believe that we are already IN the final 7-year period leading up to the return of Jesus, or are just about ready to step into those days.

I’m sorry if I held you in suspense so long, but here goes. Look at the Antichrist first.  In the beginning of the 7 years, he is called in Scripture the “little horn.”  (Daniel 7-8). This suggests he is prominent, but not yet a worldwide dictator, as he moves up to, later.  His real goals are not revealed until the Middle of the 7-year period.  But he deceives people at first, pretending to be a friend of Jews. Then he earns their trust enough to swing a 7-year covenant with Israel to protect them, and Israel agrees.  So evidently he already had some capabilities as either a military or political leader to be able to do that. (Hint: He belongs to a military power). Scripture, though, calls this 7-year covenant a “covenant with death,” (Isaiah 28:18), because his real motive is to eventually slaughter as many Jews (and Christians) as he can.

****That covenant is the key to countdown; as soon as the covenant is made, we begin the 7 years.  Then it’s time to grab your 7-year calendars.

The covenant is not in secret; to get Israel and her Muslim neighbors to stop fighting would be an achievement worldwide.  I suspect Israel had become militarily backed into a corner, or else why would they seek an outsider, particularly one who is only moderately well-known, for protection?  They have performed on their own—with weaponry from the U.S.--most of the time. Then is the time for you to give Gospel warnings far and wide.

The best Biblical proof is Daniel 9:27:

Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week; But in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering.
And on the wing of abominations shall be one who makes desolate,
Even until the consummation, which is determined, Is poured out on the desolate.”

The “many,” the beneficiary of the covenant, refers to the Jewish leaders, since the word immediately connects up with “an end to sacrifice and offering,” a Jewish custom. This also means Jews will have rebuilt the Temple for those sacrifices, in Jerusalem, that he will later cut off--so if you hear that the Temple is rebuilding, you know you may live to see the end times.

Note that the Scripture verses above refer to “one week.”  The Hebrew term is neutral—it doesn’t say “one week.” It really says, “one seven.”  But seven of what? In my end-times blogs I explain how the seven has to be a seven of years.  The Jews perceive “the little horn” as a friend, but he is fooling everybody for 3-1/2 years. Then he betrays the nation of Israel by coming to Jerusalem, and performing an “abomination” in their sacrificial area of the Temple.  What’s that?  Antiochus Epiphanes, in 167 BC, sacrificed a pig on a Jewish altar; that’s an abomination. Perhaps he sets up an idol to himself in the Jewish Temple. So, starting from the middle of the 7 years, he will kill as many Jews—and Christians—as possible.  This exposes his real purpose. So his true nature is not revealed until “the middle of the week,” or the middle of the 7-years. Or, after 3-1/2 years. So for the first 3-1/2 years, even though he grows in power, things won’t get horribly bad. Just bad. With many wars, earthquakes, famine and pestilence. Believe it or not, that’s not as bad as it will get in the last 3-1/2 years. “Pestilence,” by the way, refers to devastating plagues or epidemics.

There are a lot of things we need to do for preparation, as outlined in Scripture and in several blogs. We cannot do a rebellion against the ‘little horn,” knowing that he will become the Antichrist, and seek to kill us. He may be censoring Christians, and soon. With sophisticated tracking devices, he can easily arrest them. The only thing ever recommended for all of us in New Testament Scripture is, Flee. God makes that clear to those Jews living in Jerusalem when that fateful “revealing” day has arrived. He will immediately turn and lock down the city and slay as many Jews as he can. What is God’s advice? In Matthew 24:15ff, Jesus mentions the same thing as Daniel; the abomination of desolation:

“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), ¹⁶ “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. ¹⁷ Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. ¹⁸ And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁹ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ²⁰ And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. ²¹ For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. ²² And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the ^[c]elect’s sake those days will be shortened.

I believe that the real importance of Christians knowing these things, is because we will NOT have raptured to escape all this, but will have to endure the tribulation that will follow this covenant. Is it not best to prepare your mind for a worst-case scenario? That way, if the rapture is before the tribulation, great; if it’s after, you will be prepared ahead of time. By putting all your birds in one basket, as it were, what happens if you are wrong? Then you will be disappointed and unprepared. Many people, I suspect, will be so upset, that they will be easy prey, in their confusion and discouragement, to follow a satanic false prophet, even a false Christ.  

In conclusion, let us never abandon Jesus. He wins; the devil loses. In Him we have heaven; in the devil we have hell. Read your Bible. Stay close to a church that follows Scripture. Love your Lord every day, despite the miseries. You are to reflect Him.

 

 

 

Two Ways to Tell the Story

 I have another great sermon by Voddie Baucham I would like to summarize for you.  He is speaking mostly to evangelists, and he has some important things to say.  Have a thoughtful reading experience:

There is much discussion about how we, as those who love to evangelize for the Lord, interact with culture, and how we can most effectively impact culture.  Right now, there is the sense in which the way we do that, is by becoming more like the culture.  That way we are more palatable to the culture. We have to learn the culture’s language, the culture’s music and clothing styles.  And not just learn them, but to adopt them, and mirror them.  We become what the culture is.  Then they will listen to us as we tell the Gospel.  That’s the prevailing ideology, especially dealing with younger generations. The classic example of this is the Christian musicians, who make their music appealing, become a star, so then they have a platform for the gospel.

But this is a bait-and-switch.  Once I am enthroned as popular, then I will flip the switch, and spring on them about Jesus.  The world will listen, so I can be part of many being saved. 

Are you sure? Is that what we see in the New Testament?  Does the apostle Paul use that technique?  Let’s read Acts 17:16 to begin:

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols

Everywhere he had been—Thessalonica, Berea—his speaking drew a revival, or a riot—or both.  So he is asking the Lord what to say.  In answer, I expect, God opens his eyes, to see their religion as He sees it--so Paul is “provoked”—exceedingly agitated, to the point of being emotionally sad and angry.  He is in touch with God so that knows what He feels.   Given his background of training in Jewry, if he abhors anything most, it is idolatry.  Now he looks at temples, and monuments, and statues to demon-gods, not to the real God.  He doesn’t feel superior; he senses an overwhelming mandate, arriving from his God-given compassion toward these people who simply do not know, nor have not heard, about the real God, and His greatness.

This is a departure between what we see in culture, and how Paul saw it, on his missionary trip:  Our problem is, we don’t say “It sickens me.”  We say, let’s learn about them.  So we embrace these very idols, or at least act as if we do.

So, what does he say?  He had a history of a tactic: he “reasoned” with the Jews and devout people in the synagogue, and in the marketplace.   If you want more of that “reasoning” idea in the synagogue, study Thessalonians for his tactic.  Here, in the synagogue at Athens, similarly, he gets right into showing, using the Old Testament, how Jesus is the Christ, and how He was prophesied there.  He is copying Jesus’ method, like He did in Emmaus in Luke 24, like He did in John 5, saying, “Moses spoke of Me.” Paul showed how Jesus is the Anointed One, the Messiah, in the Old Testament.

In the Gentile marketplace, though, where people don’t know the Old Testament, he uses a different strategy.  Now keep in mind--today, our tactic is, we don’t want to offend the culture, we don’t want to be too overtly Christian.  We’re “down low” until we “get to the right place.”  But that’s not Paul.

The Epicureans are saying, “what does this babbler wish to say?”  That’s insulting:  the word “babbler” speaks of one who picks up seeds and spits them out.  So they’re saying, he just comes up with ideas, undigested, and spits them out all over the place without first thinking on them seriously.  They also  were laughing about the idea of a “resurrection,” too, which they had heard about.  So they didn’t think Paul was “cool." He did not hide his Christianity; he refused to try and “synch” with them. He got on the biggest stage of his day (the Areopagus in Mars Hill)—but he didn't get on that stage by compromising. God led the people to put him there.  Let's start with Acts 17:19-20, after the crowd led him to Areopagus, and then sat down to listen (continuing in Acts 17):

May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? ²⁰ For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore, we want to know what these things mean.” 

He did not gain their attention and this great stage by embracing their culture; in fact, he got this break because he did not.  First, hiding the gospel is wrong, even if you spring in on people later. That’s dishonest. Secondly, the “embrace the culture” idea is faithless.  God doesn’t need your help in making the gospel attractive.  Also, God can get you where you need to be by His own might and His own power.  This is demonstrated with the life of Paul.  He went faithfully to the synagogue, reasoning with them that Jesus is the Christ.

He also goes faithfully to the marketplace, preaching the gospel, no-holds-barred, about the resurrection--to people who he knows are opposed to the idea of resurrection.  God honored his faithfulness by giving him the biggest platform of his day.  He had to figure out what to preach, since they didn't have the same background or worldview like fellow Jews.  He has to bring the over-arching meta-narrative of God in history:  namely, he warmed them up speaking of the Creation, the Fall, the Redemption, and the Consummation.  So this is how he starts in Acts 17:22:

“Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; ²³ for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription:  TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.

Note that he observed the culture.  Very important.  You do not want to be an enemy of all the culture, or ignorant of it.  There is a difference, though, between being an objective observer of culture and being an indiscriminate consumer of culture--doing it because it's popular, then doing the 'bait and switch.'  All that approach is man's method.

Note what he does next:

Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: ²⁴ God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth...

This pronouncement that God created the world also goes contrary to their beliefs.  But, consider the majority opinion in our culture.  They say that we are “ignorant, narrow-minded hicks” if we believe that God created the world. They worship Charles Darwin, a scientist, after all.  In that day, they said the same thing to Paul too--most of them.  But that didn't change God's message, and that's what Paul delivered.

That's Creation; the next topic is The Fall.  He is now going to tell them that their religious philosophy is all wrong. That means he will have implied sin in their midst; God is not worshipped like you are worshipping Him. We see that in vv. 25b-30 of his sermon:

...(God) does not dwell in temples made with hands. ²⁵ Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, ²⁷ so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; ²⁸ for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ ²⁹ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 

So he is saying, "In your attempt to honor Him, you're wrong.  Even in your attempt to 'cover' yourself by making a statue to the Unknown God, well...He is here--and He is not pleased; that's not the right way to worship Him.

Then he lays it down heavier:  v. 30:

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent

Now he's on Redemption, and the words are getting sharper:  He accuses them of ignorance. How do you get right with this God? The answer is repent; turn from your sin.  So Paul, unlike today, says, "Your world view is wrong; not only is it wrong, it's an affront to God.  You're in sin.  But the good news is, God has extended an opportunity for you to repent; to turn away from sin, to turn away from this wrong effort to appease Him, this God that you don't even know.

Well, that's Creation, Fall and part of Redemption--now we see Consummation in v. 31:

because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.”

Note that he throws the hard-to-believe resurrection again in there.  Is he hoping for a shut-down of this discussion? Another throw-him-out? That rumor about him is why they called him names in the first place.  So not only has he called their worship into question, but he has suggested they are in sin, and they need to change what they are doing to get it right.  Now, for extra-good measure, he brings up the resurrection—all on his opening sermon. What's the impact of doing the opposite of what we do?  V. 32:

And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” ³³ So Paul departed from among them. ³⁴ However, some men joined him and believe

Think about the two methods. Today we compromise--and sin against God, by fearing to be unpopular, by fearing their mocking.  Even when you, after much effort, develop a friendly, listening audience, when you finally lay down the whole Gospel, some will still mock, some will want to hear you further, and some will believe.  So, since the results of the two methods seem to be the same, why compromise (and possibly be accused of being hypocritical) in the first place?  There is also the danger that if your gospel lacks a fair degree of God's judgment, i.e., it lacks mention of repentance, or our wicked sinful nature, or the dangers of hell, then those who believe will be only skin deep. They often don't really see the need for a Savior, see no need to turn their lives over to Him--and will flee when tough times come. 

Remember, Jesus promised that we will experience persecution when we preach. We need to preach the Whole gospel.  Cover the 'bad' (sin) thoroughly, unpopular though you will be, then how we're in a box, then cover the good, the only escape from hell--and heaven at the end--and His love throughout. Paul says in Romans 1:17:

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes

The power of God doesn't result from popularity, or using our influential name to get the gospel out.  But God uses the despised things to shame the things that are (I Corinthians 1:18-24).  So what should we pray?  "Oh, God, make me weak--so they will see Your strength."  Since He has a name that is above every name, what makes us think He needs ours?

The goal of our life must not be a scheme to gain popularity to be used by God.  No, it is to know Him better, that we may serve Him more faithfully.  If you think you need a lot of credentials, your God is not big enough.  Wherever He places you, low or high, you be faithful to Him.  Our world is not aching for another superstar.