 |
|
|
When Chinese police burst
into a Sunday School recently where 30 children were learning about
Jesus, they were in for a shock. Bristling with state authority, the
police officers herded the children into police vans. They must have
seen their job of intimidating babies as an easy one. They bargained
wrongly. It started when one of the children began to sing. The rest
of the children joined in. As they were marched into the police
station, instead of sobbing and crying, the children were singing
praises to the Lord. The outraged police told the children to sit
down and write, I do not believe in Jesus 100 times. Instead the
children wrote this: I believed in Jesus yesterday, I believe in
Jesus today, I will believe in Jesus forever. Exasperated, the
police officers called in the parents, threatening to take the
children away. Some parents, in fear, denied Christ. One widow whose
twin boys had been arrested was told to deny Christ or lose her
children.If I denied Christ, you’d have to keep the children because without
Christ and his help, I couldn’t raise them.she responded. The
police finally gave up and returned the children to their parents.The bravery of these children and this widow stands out in sharp
relief when contrasted with the wholesale sell-out of American
evangelicals. How many times have Christian leaders sat on Larry
King with a wonderful opportunity to share the Gospel, and they
refused? Wildly popular Pastor Joel Osteen was asked recently about
Christianity on Larry King Live.King: What if you’re Jewish or Muslim, you don’t accept
Christ at all?Osteen: You know, I’m very careful about saying who would and
wouldn’t go to heaven. I don’t know…King: If you believe you have to believe in Christ? They’re
wrong, aren’t they?Osteen: Well, I don’t know if I believe they’re wrong. I
believe here’s what the Bible teaches and from the Christian faith
this is what I believe. But I think that only God will judge a
person’s heart. I spent a lot of time in India with my father. I
don’t know all about their religions. But I know they love God. I
don’t know. I’ve seen their sincerity. So I don’t know. I know for
me, and what the Bible teaches, I want to have a relationship with
Jesus.King: What about atheists?
Osteen: You know what? I’m going to let someoneI’m going to let God
be the judge of who goes to heaven and hell. I justagain, I present
the truth and I say it every week. You know, I believe it’s a
relationship with Jesus. But you know what? I’m not going to go
around and tell everybody else if they don’t want to believe that
that’s going to be their choice. God’s got to look at your own
heart…Unlike the Chinese children, Joel Osteen denied Christ. All of his
backtracking a few days later when he began to get flak for his
comments didn’t change what Osteen did. Denial of Christ has become
a way of life for many Evangelical leaders now. Just ask Rick Warren
who time and time again has had the perfect opportunity to share the
message of the Gospel and he has refused. He has written column
after column in Ladies Home Journal and has refused to share the
message that Christ alone is the way of salvation from sin, death
and hell, even though thousands of readers may have never heard the
true Gospel. Those words sin, death and hell have been expunged from
Evangelical lexicons these days. Too divisive. Too negative. Too
restricting and too narrow.There was no message of the cross on the lips of Rick Warren and Ted
Haggard of the National Association of Evangelicals in early
November as they were wined and dined at the Global Health Summit
sponsored by Time, Inc. in New York. Warren sat on a panel with an
Islamic Imam, an Orthodox Jew, and a member of the apostate World
Council of Churches to discuss how people of faith could come
together to cure global health woes. Faith in whom or what didn’t
matter. Also speaking was serial blasphemer Ted Turner , Paul
Wolfawitz, president of the World Bank, and Bono, the rock star
turned humanitarian. No, the narrow way of the cross is out of style
among many American Christian leaders.But didn’t the words of our Lord himself tell us that the road for
believers would be narrow? Where has the notion come from that the
applause and acceptance of the world is a sign of God’s blessing?
Christ was reviled, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We
are somehow better than he? Rick Warren can bask in the approval of
secularist philanthropists and leaders like Bill Clinton, Bill Gates
and Ted Turner and still be found faithful to Jesus Christ? If
Christ was spit upon, what gives Rick Warren and Ted Haggard of the
National Association of Evangelicals the right to love and adoration
from the secular power elite?The Chinese children had it right. They understood in their
child-like faith that they could never write, I don’t believe in
Jesus, no matter what it cost them. As these dear little soldiers
of Jesus Christ went marching courageously into that police station,
singing praises to Jesus, they shamed the vast numbers of powerful
American Evangelical sell-outs who have traded the very best heaven
could offer for a bowl of rotting pottage. The praises on the lips
of those Chinese children ascended that day to God’s throne and the
Lord must have been well pleased.Out of the mouths of
babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of thine
enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
Psalm 8:2
This picture was removed on 3-12-06 in order
not to endanger the lives of these joyful Chinese singers. Their
faithful director was recently arrested.
Singing
His praises, these Chinese youths, too, have chosen to
follow their Lord in spite of the risks.
© 2005
Ingrid SchlueterIngrid Schlueter has been producer and co-host of the Crosstalk
Radio Talk Show on the VCY America Radio Network for 18 years. She
is author of numerous articles on current issues and is a regular
columnist for Wisconsin Christian News. She has also authored, Parent Police: The UN Wants Your Children. Email:
vcyproducer@aol.com Website:
http://sliceoflaodicea.com
Other articles by Ingrid Schlueter:
Eternal Vigilance: The Price of
Sound DoctrineDon’t
Ask Don’t Tell Policy is Destroying the Church
Home
|
Articles |
Charts
|
Victory
this page
