Adonai Reigns

Prophet Jeremiah was familiar with persecution. He was hated by the false prophets of his time and was despised by the king, because his words were full of indignation (Jeremiah 15:17).

He drew strength from His knowledge that what He spoke was good and holy in God's sight, even though it was not particularly appreciated by the people. He says here that there is potential risk of losing his strength if he were to be deceived (Matthew 24:24).

We all want to be loved, respected and honoured, though honour, respect and love belong to the giver rather than the receiver. This means that the giver needs to first recognise why the receiver deserves love, respect and honour, then these can come freely.

Sometimes, desperate for acceptance, a person will compromise their position of truth for fear of being ostracised by those who cannot bear the indignation of their conscience in righteous presence (consider 1 Corinthians 15:33 and Matthew 15:18-20, with John 15:19 and John 16:8).

Justice is to judge so as to render accordingly to the deserving parties: supporting the innocent and condemning the guilty. 

The righteous detest the unjust because that is to support the wicked and condemn the upright. The base motivation for this is sin - pride to appear more righteous than the one they are condemning, and envy that they do not receive from the righteous one, the love, respect and honour that they crave (consider Mark 15:7-11, Esther 3:1-5). 

Such a person does not do justice, because he is wrongly hating the one who is innocent - (1 Corinthians 13:6, Psalms 69:4).

Picture this: King Solomon observes "great glory" when the righteous triumph - why? Because the righteous love justice, and justice loves supporting the innocent. 

When the innocent are acquitted and the guilty condemned, innocent victims are spared undue suffering (Proverbs 29:7). This creates a society where people can genuinely rejoice in the goodness of life, trusting their leaders to do good in justice (Proverbs 29:4).

When the wicked have the power, justice is easily perverted by a judge's lack of righteousness: innocent are punished, guilty are not condemned and thus people hide for fear of becoming a casualty (Isaiah 53:8-9, Isaiah 59:4-5).

Just as the prophet Hosea spoke toward the land of Israel in his time, so one could make the same observation of the world in general this day. Church numbers are falling and the younger generations are getting more of their ideas about Jesus from secular television and occult fiction. The majority of people say that they have a respect and some sort of belief in Jesus, but the majority of those don't believe church is a healthy place for them to exercise their faith, as their experience of church has caused them to resent it.

In response to the crisis, a lot of churches have responded by lessening the righteous conviction in their speech and appealing to the public with flattery and poetry, even with comedy, catering to the likes of those in John 3:20. They declare this way their preference is to represent Jesus' name in the world by a large congregation of sinners than a refined community of righteous (Psalms 11:5, Psalms 1:5, Matthew 5:19-20, Matthew 21:31, 2 Peter 2:1-2).

What is this thing that those churches love more than God, when they are compromising righteousness in order to act contrary to scripture, for the sake of popularity?

Whether it be a craving for financial prosperity in the church budget, boasting of the number in their congregation, recognition for flattering those in the pews, political influence, personal sense of achievement etc.. 

There are many ways a church can be deceived to think that it is doing a service to God while acting contrarily (Matthew 13:22, Ezekiel 34:4).

Too many people have stories of being mistreated by churches - not treating sojourners with patience and love in order to teach them (Ezekiel 22:7-9) but acting in wrath to cut off the one who calls them to question when it would force recognition of their relative propensity to believe falsehoods (without question). 

As a consequence, many genuine and useful people are turned away from pursuing Christ at churches, when in fact they should have been brought in - furthermore, the ones who are brought in are a type who more easily believe what they are told without question.

How often have you heard this said: "there are some things we will never understand, we just have to accept them by faith".

When a newcomer enters a church, they have been drawn by God to enquire in that place. Because they are eager to belong with that community, they are easily inclined to compromise and to yield to a belief that doesn't really fit with them, instead of standing firm to their convictions. 

If a person chooses to believe a thing that doesn't make sense to them, they didn't choose to believe the truth - they chose to be deceived.

Why did they do that? Who placed that pressure on them?

Jesus said "I am the way, truth and life" (John 14:6). 

This means that no one comes to The Father except by the truth, and no one has life outside of the truth (1 John 3:15). 

For this reason, Jesus said the way leading to life is narrow and difficult, and few go that way. He also warned that many would come to him on the day of His appearance, saying "Lord! .. Lord! .. See all the wonderful things I did in your name!" (They seek His love, respect and honour), though He will say to them "I never knew you. Depart from me, for you are a worker of iniquity" (Matthew 7:13-23).

.. So, what causes that sort of church member to deceive one such "little one" that Jesus draws in, by encouraging them to believe something that they don't understand to be true?

There could be different reasons, the most popular being that they are seen as a potential proselyte - someone that is regarded as a child, student or protégé (Matthew 23:8-12), or it could be some doctrinal error in them that has clouded their judgement of the spiritual state of the person: they fail to recognise that the person has already begun their walk of faith so as to have placed their trust in Jesus to the effect of salvation (eg Romans 14:3). For example, some people believe that certain legalistic prerequisites of declaration or ritual are required before a person can be recognised as sanctified - 2 Timothy 3:1-7.

Whether fear or greed, the impact is the same: instead of serving the spirit of Christ in that little one (Matthew 25:40), they have served their own desires, discouraging that one's fervent pursuit of robust knowledge (Matthew 23:13, Ephesians 5:6).

Through coveting that which belongs to God (1 Corinthians 3:6), they have corrupted that one's faith and quenched The Holy Spirit in them (that is, The Spirit of Truth), while they might have rather been encouraged to enquire fully and thereby speak boldly of what they had found for sure.