Running headlong into greater evil

What Bible-believers understand like no one else is that the political structure of our country and this world is controlled by "the prince of this world," i.e. Satan.

“We live in a culture that’s running headlong into greater and greater evil, debauchery, violence and corruption, polluted by modern barbarians,” says Jordan.

“When the Apostle Paul talks about being a good citizen living in a society, he was in a culture that was every bit as pagan and as corrupt as ours is.

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“You shouldn’t think that our world is the only one that ever had abortions. When Jesus Christ was born, there was a wicked tyrant who ruled that land and sent out word, not to kill unborn babies, but to kill every child under two years old that happened to be born a male.

“People talk about the political and economic oppression of the government, but when the Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, His mom and dad had gone there because there was a decree from the government of His day that there would be a tax.

“I mean, where could there ever been a more unjust government and taxing system than what they were under? But they didn’t say, ‘We’re not going to go.’

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“They lived in a day when slavery was institutionalized. Racial bigotry is an odious, nasty, ugly thing. But you read through your Bible and you don’t find people decrying the Roman government; bemoaning the evil economic system or even the injustices.

“You’re not going to get rid of those things, folks, by fighting the system. The way you have an impact on the nation is you go out and understand people need to be transformed internally (through salvation). They need to have a change inside of them.

“That’s why in Philippians 2:14, Paul says, ‘Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.’

“That’s how you do it and you see from the passage they lived ‘in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.’ But Paul’s not telling them to go out and fight that by political means. He’s talking about fighting it by holding up some light that gives life. And that light, which is life, transforms the rest.

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“By the way, you don’t transform a culture by quoting II Chronicles 7:14: ‘If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’

“You know what the problem with that is? Go back and read the context, and the context is when He says, ‘If my people,’ the two verses before tell you it’s the people of Israel!

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“Paul says in Titus 3, ‘Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.’

“The message is, ‘Go out and be good citizens in the world; go out and live in the culture as pagan, and wicked, and evil as it is, but go out there and live in it as a Believer.’ ”

(Editor’s note: To be continued tomorrow . . .)