02/17/26 IT IS NOT A NEW THOUGHT

02/17/26 IT IS NOT A NEW THOUGHT

A period from my life and a metaphor for today.

There was a time in my life when my Christian position concerning certain social and government standards ushered me into the "exile period of my life" (personally and pastorally). It was not simply a matter of being opposed to certain standards; it was a matter of being totally committed to the Lordship of Christ over His Church and being forbidden and threatened by the State if I chose to follow my Christian faith, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

I am not going into the details of my beliefs, convictions, or commitments at that time. I am addressing a particular experience and one of the many lessons I learned from that experience.

THREE CHRISTIAN OPTIONS TO STATE PERSECUTION
Christians can...
Fight the worldly powers of darkness (spiritually, legally, socially, morally), which I did until it was obviously futile,
or
Bite the bullet (willingly suffer the enemy's persecution), from which God delivered me,
or
Take Flight for safety (escape from unnecessary oppression), which led to my years of "exile."
This post includes a little of all three.

In order to live faithfully by my convictions, I either needed to fight the system, bite the bullet of suffering or take flight for safety. We see three options played out in the Bible.

After exhausting a search for support or help from other individuals and organizations (concerning government directives that conflicted with Biblical absolutes), including...
Well-known and respected pastors (nationally and locally),
Government Officials (Christian and non-Christian; Local, State, and Federal),
Christian Media Giants,
Well-known Law Offices and Associations (Christian and non-Christian, local and nationally), I faced the fact that it was time to leave the state. I was willing to stand, but God had other plans.

I had sought a path that would give me the opportunity to obey Jesus and submit to the State, but there was no path. I was willing to square off with the state in court, but I could not find a lawyer who would stand with me.

During this time, I became aware of how far our society had fallen from its spiritual, cultural, and legal heritage. The oppression we faced included attacks on personal obedience to Christ, surrendering the Lordship of the Church into the hands of a godless state, worship of the State, denial of Biblical directives and morality, families were being forced to give their children to the State, forced by the State to pay for abominable practices, as the song says, "And the beat goes on."

Though I (we) often stood fast and defiant in the face of looming legal action, God constantly put a hedge around me, my family, and my congregation. He had much more to teach me about Christian living in a Laodicean world.

Eventually it was time to leave the destructive, anti-Christian, anti-Bible, anti-family clutches of an unbridled social, political, religious system. I looked for a state where Christians could freely obey Jesus, without legal reprisals or compromising the faith. After a great deal of investigation, I moved to another state that had not yet surrendered fully to the god of Secular Humanism and Statism.

During our period of "exile" (which lasted approximately thirty years), we learned many lessons about living godly in this present evil age. Since we were going through State oppression without any support from Christians, churches, or law offices, I was very sensitive to other Christians who were going through the same kind of difficulties that I (we) were going through. I did what I could to help other believers in their endeavor to obey God in the face of oppression, intimidation, lawfare, and economic attacks (which are forms of persecution). I (we) traveled to other states (Tx. and Va.) to support other churches (Salvation Army and Independent Baptists). Being faithful to God's directives, we were willing to lose our homes, our vehicles, our jobs, friends, and family relationships. We were falsely labeled as cultic because we chose to obey God rather than men. It is costly to follow fully-Jesus.

Yet our losses were not worthy to be compared to the treasure we found in following Jesus. Also, our flight was for the purpose of saving our children from the clutches of Molech (Statism, Secular Humanism, Socialism, Communism, Globalism, Paganism, Hedonism, and, as it turned out, Islam and Wokeism). This attack on family and church authority has ruined the lives of 50+ million children and youth through the Public Education System over the past 40 years. Now look at America.

I (we) have not only chosen to walk the narrow way in obedience to Christ in the midst of an anti-God culture, but we have also warned people against compromising salvation and truth for cultural and material advantages. The cost of discipleship is real. Whoever will live godly in this present evil world shall be persecuted for their faith.

Persecution can be oppression, subjection and execution. When we have honestly told inquiring Christians what they might face if they follow Christ fully, they have often said they would not make the commitment or the sacrifice because they did not want to "Go to jail." These are not my words, these are the words of lawyers, pastors, university professors, politicians, Christian educators, and other believers.

I have had Christian legal experts tell me that they would help us if we would obey the laws that are contrary to the Bible. I had friends tell me to do what the government requires and keep on preaching. I had fellow pastors tell me that my responsibility is to obey the State. But I have read Romans 13, and I know that when the State contradicts the Bible, I must obey God rather than men. The Church does not have two heads. Only Jesus is the Head of the Church. I have read the Bible, and the end is not worldwide salvation; it is worldwide rebellion against God, persecution against God's people.

A major event during my "exile" period involved a local church in a different state that was being oppressed. I (along with my congregation) chose to stand with that local congregation (though they were of a different doctrinal background). This required moving from one state to another and relocating again to the property of the oppressed church to stand in solidarity. There were other churches from several states who joined in this momentous action, but we were the only ones who moved our entire ministry to their besieged property.

These moves cost us our homes (which we were buying) and our vehicles and required that we live in temporary and limited accommodations (sometimes campers, sometimes a bus, sometimes a van, sometimes tents, sometimes campgrounds and sometimes on church grounds). We did this while doing day labor, mowing lawns, decorating windows, making and selling lawn ornaments, "lumping" tractor trailers, building barns, roofing, house building, auto repair, house painting, house cleaning, hospital work, in order to eat and pay our bills and we were also running a very active ministry (music, worship, studies, printing, political rallies, Christian conferences, freedom fighting) and raising our families and educating our children.

When we took a stand with one particular church, we moved into group housing, we gave our money to support the corporate effort of that church in its stand for Christian truth and liberty. We ate communally, sometimes in a very large army tent, sometimes in our own homes, sometimes in the church fellowship hall.

Each family decided their own level of commitment in support of the host church. Our small church group (in its entirety) was willing to not only lose material possessions, but they were willing to go to jail and willing to lose their children to the State, in order to remain faithful to God's word and His calling. As Jesus said, "If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me." We need to talk the talk and walk the walk.

Then, after we had spent weeks putting everything on the line to support and help the other church, the pastor (who did not believe or preach holiness of heart and life) made the decision to kick our church off of his property. One night he sent one of his parishioners to tell us that there would not even be any breakfast for any of us (women and children included) the next morning. Remember, we had given our time, our energy, our total financial support, our labor for an extended period of time. We were committed to help that church through their time of trouble. We weren't playing games.

When I was told to be off the property the next morning, I talked with all my people and told them what was happening. No anger, no nastiness, no regret, (holiness is a beautiful reality). We had done what God wanted us to do, and our trust was in Him, not the pastor or his church.

I walked to the pastor's house to address everything face to face (since he only sent a parishioner with the "eviction notice.)" He gave no reason for cutting ties, except he said he got tired of "tiptoeing through the tulips" around our church folks. That was it. That is all there was to it. His Carnal Mind, his Old Man could not stand living halfway in victory and halfway in sinful nature (the Double Mind). The lifestyle of holiness is a burden if you don't have a pure heart.

I told the pastor that we would be leaving, but giving us only a night's notice was unthinkable. I told him my people needed to find a place to live, and that his spur-of-the-moment notice was not reasonable. The pastor then said we could have a week. I told him we would be gone before the week was out. I also told him that we would feed ourselves. (Remember, we had given his people all our finances, thus we would only have whatever cash God would then provide through our own men, who would get paid for any day job they could find. We really were praying, "Give us this day our daily bread." As it turned out, God provided us a place to move our entire congregation within a day. Our hope was in Jesus and Jesus never fails.

We had relocated, left homes and jobs, sacrificed for the pastor and his people in their stand against the State, we had lost material advantages, we had put everything on the line, including our children, for the Lordship of Christ over His Church, but now the pastor wanted us off the property in the morning, without even having breakfast. (However, one of his parishioners came over, later that night to tell me that he himself would provide cereal for our people in the morning. I told him, "Thank you," but we would take care of ourselves.)

HERE IS MY POINT. I was committed to that which was good (standing with fellow believers, standing up for the Lordship of Christ over His Church. I was faithful to that which God required of me (as was my congregation). I submitted myself and my ministry to a legitimate project. But as soon as that project went in the wrong direction, I had no more obligation or subjection to it. This was true for the pastor and his ministry.

Here is a present-day application. I am a glad and willing supporter of that which is good and right. This includes political as well as ministry issues. I support President Trump when he is doing that which is legitimate (based on Biblical directives, such as protecting the righteous [law-abiding] and punishing the wicked [lawless]). But I will not stand with a wicked Political Platform or Politician. I am not committed to any person who makes decisions in violation of Biblical directives *murdering the preborn, *mutilating children, *promoting false or violent religions, and a host of other wicked policies.

We live in a day of TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome), but I also see TMS (Trump Messiah Syndrome). Don't follow blindly. The old saying, "My country right or wrong," is a dangerous confession of faith. I am glad for the good things that have happened politically because of Trump reversing the wickedness of the DonkeyCrats and their head Burros, Obama and Biden. But make no mistake. Trump is a man. He is a man who denies he has needed to repent. He is a man driven by the love of money. He is a carnal, self-promoting man. He is a man without Christ. He is a man that God has used, just a God used the raven to feed a prophet, and God used the donkey to warn a prophet. But He is not THE MAN. Jesus is THE GOD MAN. Jesus is our hope.

It is just as wicked to worship Trump as it is to reject God's use of Trump. Take advantage of your opportunities at this present time. The future is going to get dark, very dark, very quickly. Our only hope is Jesus.

Some people are opposed to political leadership because of issues aside from governing issues. Some people will follow a political leader, regardless of how un-Biblical he is. There is an old saying, which is wrong: "My country, right or wrong." There are many things about which we can disagree, but we should never commit to a person, a party, or a movement when they are anti-Biblical, anti-family, anti-Christian, or anti-Christ in their leadership.