(James Smith, "The Book You Will Like!" 1859)
Given the coming furor over the “believer” and what he has done in Norway last week, we can expect to hear a great deal from the world about the hypocrisy of Christians and of Church and of God’s children. Frankie Schaeffer (son of Francis Schaeffer, one of the great Christian philosophers/theologians of the last era - now dead some years) has already come out and said that this is just something that has been coming because of the “extreme views” of the Christian Fundamentalists and Evangelicals (whatever they are - a conveniently broad term).
My point being that we need to understand that the unredeemed have no understanding of what a believer is or what they think. This poor young man had no understanding of what Christ expected of one of His children, else he never would have used the tools he used to seek to achieve the ends he fancied God wanted him to seek to achieve.
But other unbelievers will not see it that way. They will use the opportunity to rant and rave and further support their own views and comfort themselves in their own rebellion against the sovereign God of the universe. I know that this will make no sense to them either, and that it will, in fact, irritate and anger them yet further. But reality is reality.
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)
“They” (the unredeemed) surely do not care for such an appellation as the “the foolish”, but then it did not originate with me. That is what those who say in their heart there is no God and refuse to submit to His authority.
David spoke of such in Psalm 12:2-4:
2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor;
3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks proud things,
4 Who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own;
Who is lord over us?”
They say "our lips are our own." They speak as if God had no authority to either command them or to judge them [who is Lord over us]. This, of course, is absurd and unreasonable; for he in whom we live, and move, and have our being, must be the indisputable lord over us.
They have the conception that they will prevail, and that conception is undergirded by no more that than their “tongues”, their words, their minds and thoughts.
As a patient God allows sinful men to rant and rave, their confidence grows and their boldness progresses and, d=sadly, rather than seeing their sin for what it is and taking advantage of that patience to come to a merciful God and beg for His grace as is the purpose of that gracious waiting on His part; they are confirmed in their sin and made all the more bold and brassy in their sin.
Where is this God? They draw the wrong conclusion that, because He is silent, He must not be there. There is no more grave and terrible an error to be made that that!
A significant reason that many of the unredeemed believe this is because much of “Christianity” have stopped teaching “Christian” things!
We must understand that to the unsaved world this appears to be an act of hypocrisy. Because they have no real, spiritual, contact with God and thus no real ability to understand the truth of the Word of God they are not able to sort out the differences between true and false believers. To the unsaved world a “Christian” is a “Christian”. They know nothing of true and false profession. Neither can we expect them to.
The point here is that it is totally understandable, from their point of view, to see them, in this day and age, standing and scratching their heads, wondering just what it is that a “Christian” is? After all, most of those who profess to be one stand for absolutely nothing at all, at least, nothing that would cause the vast majority of the unredeemed any significant discomfort.
James Smith, the 17th Century Puritan had this to say about the mindset of the unredeemed and how they think of hypocritical believers who profess to believe in the God of the Bible, yet do not say a Word about the harsher doctrines of the Bible to those around them:
I do not believe that you Christians believe your own creed--for if you were persuaded that things really are as your Bibles teach, and that we poor lost people were really going to such a dreadful place as you say Hell is--then you would act more humanely toward us.
If you saw our houses on fire--you would run and help us to put the fire out; or if you saw us in danger of death--you would try to do something to save us. But you pretend to believe that we are going to Hell, and that Hell burns with fire and brimstone forever, and that once there we can never get out--and yet you talk to us about all sorts of things--but never say one word to us about saving our souls from this terrible doom!
So I have reasoned thus: either you Christians don't believe what you say--or else you must be the most hardened and unfeeling wretches in the universe!
Now, as I don't believe that you are such cruel, hardened, and unfeeling people as this supposes--then I must conclude that, with all your talk--you Christians don't really believe what your Bibles teach! [If that was true back in his day, the day of the Puritans, then how much more is it so of our own day - when we are so much less zealous and confirmed in our holy zeal than those of that great era?]
For if you really believe what you say about sin, and Hell, and our danger--then you would act differently; and if you have a spark of kindness in your hearts--you would try to save us from such a dreadful doom. [How true is it that that the real definition of kindness is NOT to “get along and make those around us feel good about themselves, temporarily avoiding discomfort. But to tell them the truth and call them to submission to their God…]
And, on the other hand, if you do not believe what you profess--then you Christians cannot be honest; and to say the least, there must be a great deal of hypocrisy among you.
Now, I honestly tell you that these are the things which have stumbled me more than anything, and until I can see you Christians act differently--I will not be persuaded to believe what your sort of folks say.
Earlier, we heard from Moody who said that revival must begin within the Church of God - here we see further indication that this is so! O Lord let it begin in y own heart and in my own life!
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