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These
people have decided to please this crooked and sinful generation. How? By
conforming themselves to the world, so the world accept them instead of
rejecting them; the world loves them instead of hating them, they have become
friends of the world, their words and deeds witness against them very
clearly. They are dressed like the people of the world, they amuse themselves
like the people of the world, they set their minds on earthly things just as
the people of the world do, they mock at their neighbour just as the people
of the world do, they use a coarse and vulgar language just as the people of
the world do; how can we expect them to be persecuted and afflicted for
Christ’s sake? How can we expect them to speak about what they are successfully
avoiding? How can we hear them speaking of things which don’t concern them?
Yes, they attend a place of worship called ‘Evangelical Church’, but
once they are outside it, they conduct themselves just like the people of the
world do, rather sometimes their conduct is worse than the conduct of the
people of the world. Brutal, covetous persons, extortioners, haughty,
slanderers, vainglorious persons, lovers of pleasure and luxury; that’s what
these people, who bear the name ‘Christian’ unworthily, are.
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Isn’t this
message attractive, which promises only joy, peace, and much material
prosperity and speaks of no sacrifices and of no persecutions? Of course, it
is. This is why many have accepted it with open arms, because they have been
blinded by its seeming beauty and correctness. Therefore, do not expect these
rebels and enemies of the cross to speak about the tribulations and
afflictions which we who are Christians are called to endure on earth; I
repeat myself, do not expect this, you would delude yourself. Do not expect
them to say that they are despised, insulted, mocked, forsaken by the people
of this world.
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As for me,
I will not shun to tell you that if you want to follow Christ, many
tribulations, many persecutions, many insults and many sacrifices await you.
Jesus said that if they persecuted Him, they will also persecute us (John 15:20), because
they don’t know the Father who sent Him into this world. Jesus stated that
men will persecute us, they will hate us, they will put some of us to death,
they will bring us before kings and rulers for His name’s sake, they will
deliver us to prisons, and we will be betrayed even by parents and friends.
Obviously, some of these promises concern only some of us, because not all of
us are put to death for Jesus’ sake, not all of us are put into prison, not
all of us are betrayed by parents. Nevertheless, surely one thing concerns
all of us, that is, the persecution at the hands of the people of the world
and their hatred toward us. No matter under which form their hatred may
manifest itself, it surely manifests itself. I myself have been despised by
the people of the world, and my friends have forsaken me for the sake of the
Lord Jesus. But all these things are not strange things, but normal things
which are experienced by all those who deny themselves and take up their
cross, in order to follow Jesus. Rather, I will say to you something else: I
have been despised and forsaken even by some believers, because I have
decided to please the Lord rather than these believers who are men-pleasers. Know
this, that among the people of God are many who will love you, smile at you,
praise you and cheer you, as long as you don’t touch their idols, their
amusements and their carnal pleasures. But when you touch those evil things
which they don’t want to give up, immediately they will begin to turn their
backs on you, to ridicule you, to despise you, and to label you ‘a fanatic’,
‘an exaggerator’, ‘a Pharisee’, etc. I have noticed that many of those who
are called ‘dear brothers’ or ‘servants of God’ are nothing but stubborn
rebels, they are like Diotrephes, Demas, Korah, Dathan and Abiram; they are
whitewashed tombs who do all things in order to be seen by men, they have a
heart trained in covetous practices, they despise the cross of Christ and
trample it underfoot, they deceive the hearts of the simple by smooth words
and flattering speech. They are servants of Mammon, they are ready to sell
their soul to the devil for a piece of bread and a stew of lentils, they are
willing to trample the Word of God underfoot for a few euro and they side
with the majority, that is, with the rebels. These ‘dear brothers’ love and
practice falsehood, yes they love and practice it continually: they are not
in the habit of speaking the truth. ‘The Lord spoke to me,’ ‘God revealed to
me that …,’ they often say. And what did the Lord speak and reveal to them?
Some of them say that the Lord told them that divorced persons can remarry;
some others say that the woman is allowed to teach, some say that today the
woman can pray or prophesy with her head uncovered (that is, without a veil
upon her head), that the woman can wear a miniskirt and jewelry because God
looks at the heart, etc. Lies, just lies which are spoken by these rebels in
the name of the Lord: for sure they will receive in themselves the penalty for
their rebellion. Surely they will be punished for their lies, just as the
false prophets who used their tongues and said, ‘The Lord says’ but God had
not spoken to them nor sent them. What did those prophets do? They strengthened
the hands of the evildoers and discouraged the righteous people. The threats
were for the righteous rather than for the wicked. They said to the rebels: ‘The
Lord has said, ‘You shall have peace’, and ‘No evil shall come upon you!’ (Jeremiah
23:17), while they said to Jeremiah that he did not seek the welfare of the
people but their harm (Jeremiah 38:4 – yet the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the
people from God, so his words were true and faithful). These rebels will
never get away with it, they can deceive the simple but not God, who will
return their craftiness on their own heads at His appointed time.
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