Saturday, January 21, 2017

The name of God is reviled among the Gentiles


It's a clear biblical precept, and not a particularly complicated one, that when you count yourself as one of God's own yet persist in evil, there will be repercussions in this world, and then the next.

America's Finest Christians (TM) are quick to throw out Bible verses for their own ends, yet their prooftexting of Holy Scripture never seems to be directed at their own misdeeds.

In the more than a year that we had to learn exactly what kind of a man President Donald Trump is, and be told of the manifest evil he himself promised to commit as leader of the Free World, many American Christians found all manner of justifications to ignore God's holy word and turn this amoral vulgarian into a modern-day, flesh-and-blood Golden Calf (more like a golden ass, alas).

Then they proclaimed it God's will and forbade all dissent as un-American, un-Christian or both.

Again, this is not rocket science.
All who sin outside the law will also perish without reference to it, and all who sin under the law will be judged in accordance with it. For it is not those who hear the law who are just in the sight of God; rather, those who observe the law will be justified.

For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature observe the prescriptions of the law, they are a law for themselves even though they do not have the law. They show that the demands of the law are written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even defend them on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge people’s hidden works through Christ Jesus.

Now if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of God and know his will and are able to discern what is important since you are instructed from the law, and if you are confident that you are a guide for the blind and a light for those in darkness, that you are a trainer of the foolish and teacher of the simple, because in the law you have the formulation of knowledge and truth — then you who teach another, are you failing to teach yourself?

You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who detest idols, do you rob temples? You who boast of the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? For, as it is written, "Because of you the name of God is reviled among the Gentiles."


-- Romans 2:12-24
THE EXTENT to which Trump manages to do what he promised -- building "the beautiful wall" on the Mexican border, deporting the undocumented en masse, using America's military as an instrument of vengeance or irrational pique, making torture into government policy, turning away the persecuted and suffering and targeting immigrants on the basis of their religion -- he will be doing evil in the name of all Americans.

By extension, those who enabled him and supported his wickedness will be just as guilty as the president. And they will cloak their iniquity with the mantle of God's righteousness.

That sort of blasphemy likely would be a bridge too far even for the areligious Trump.

At last, when the string has played out and our dysfunctional, unstable commander in chief has visited ruin upon our land, God will be blasphemed among those who know Him not -- an ever growing percentage of the U.S. population. And those who fought Trump's lies and misdeeds, for love of God and the God's honest truth, will suffer the coming wrath
-- for His slandered name's sake -- right along with those who gave themselves over to the spirit of blasphemy.

Jesus wept. Satan laughed.

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