God and the Rebellion :: Crown & Sickle Ministries

God — including His word, His people and everything associated with His nature — is the object of derision and ridicule among most of the inhabitants of this planet. From the poor and ignorant to the affluent and educated most people reject the Creator while bowing before their gods of paper and straw. God is shown disdain from all classes of people because hardness of heart and blasphemy knows no boundaries and class distinctions.

So, we might ask, how does God respond to such attacks? What happens in His great heart when the likes of Kathy Griffin spew forth their profanity and blasphemy? Or when Conan O’Brien refers to Jesus as a homosexual voyeur? As a sidebar we might wonder what does He think when Christians fail to monitor what they invite into their homes thus allowing the Griffins and O’Briens full access to the hearts and minds of their children.

To be sure God’s heart becomes heavy because He, better than the rest of us, fully understands the ultimate end of those who hearts are so hardened. That Jesus died for every person is a fact. But, what separates the saved from those who will spend eternity in a literal lake of fire is not sin, for we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). The critical matter comes down to what a person does with God’s offer of salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ.

That said, consider another (and seldom studied) aspect of God’s response to a person’s rejection of His grace — vengeance. This seems so difficult to accept, especially in these days of tolerance and accommodation, but it is the truth. What we often fail to comprehend is the multi-faceted nature of God’s character. The cross of Jesus shows His love and grace, but hell shows His vengeance. Pabulum preachers so often fail miserably in declaring the entire counsel of the Bible and thus never expound those texts having to do with God’s vengeance. That God will one day take out His vengeance upon a Christ-rejecting world just does not fit into their you-just-need-to-feel-good-about-yourself, you-are-God’s-peer preaching programs, you see. The following texts are among those they wish to slice from the Bible:

A logical question might be, Well, does God enjoy taking vengeance upon the blasphemers? No, He does not. His vengeance is not the result of His being some low-level, insecure, man-made deity who sees any rebellion as a threat to his god-ship. Perish the thought! His vengeance comes from man’s rejection of the only means of redemption he will ever have, and of his throwing away and discarding as of no-account the blood of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. That is what brings anger welling up in the great heart of God. That is worse than the proverbial, “biting the hand that feeds you” thing. It is the irreverent and wicked sacrilege of in-your-face rejection. In years past some warriors were buried in secret in order to prevent their enemies from desecrating their graves by using them as latrines. For any sinner who is so utterly hopeless and undeserving to blatantly reject God’s selfless sacrifice multiplies such desecration a thousand fold. It invites God’s burning anger.

And God laughs (Psalm 2). God does not laugh because He finds the blood of His people martyred at the hands of pagans to be only a matter of laughter. And, He laughs not because of raw humor. Rather, he laughs because of the utterly vain, conceited and obnoxious attitude some have about His sovereignty. From Acts 4:25 we are told David, the great warrior-king, wrote that Psalm. One of the earliest psalms, it speaks of God’s anger and terror being visited upon those who take their stand against God and who demand freedom from His dominion. He is said to laugh and scoff at their pride and arrogance. David said clearly their rebellion is no threat to God’s power and authority — rather, it is laughable insanity!

As an example consider the Roman Emperor Diocletian. As his progeny is doing today, under the Diocletian Persecution (AD 303-311) he tried to totally destroy Christianity. In fact, he had a medal minted which said, “The name of Christians being extinguished.” Further, in Spain he had two monuments erected which said basically the same thing, that he “...abolished the superstition of Christ…” Now, maybe we need to stop and consider which one is dead today; which one is “extinguished and abolished” — Diocletian or Jesus Christ?

Consider also the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, commonly referred to as the father of the “God is dead” movement. Though he said this in a philosophical context, yet the result was meant to be literal. In fact, when the drugged-out generation of the 1960s was in full-bloom and attracting every hippie philosopher of every stripe the “God is dead” mantra took a quantum leap in popularity. This gave license to live as one might wish without moral standards and accountability. The “turn on, tune in, drop out” crowd was going to do it anyway, but Nietzscheism sort of gave them an air of philosophical respectability. At least in their own minds. Or, what was left of their minds.

In his book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” Nietzsche said, “Dead are all the gods; now do we desire the superman to live.” God must have surely laughed at that statement! The fact of the matter is it is no longer Nietzsche saying, “God is dead”, but God saying, “Nietzsche is dead”. Wonder what he thinks about his philosophy now?

God is indeed sovereign, but He is presently not exercising His sovereignty over the world as He one day will. He is allowing the human race to continue on its path of rebellion until He gets enough at which time He will laugh at man’s puny assertions as Jesus Christ subjugates this entire planet to His will. And mankind will have absolutely no recourse but to humbly bow before Him. How revolting that will be to so many!

As is the case in some other towns, when motorists enter the town of Amite, LA they see signs, on private property, declaring, “Jesus is Lord over Amite”. That is true...but only in a manner of speaking. That Jesus is actually Lord over any such town or city is a misnomer. I know of no municipality that has made Him Lord, and the fact is most such municipalities are more akin to Hollywood and Las Vegas than any place godly. Such signs are mostly feel-good, wishful thinking by some well-meaning people. But, the fact remains that unregenerate humanity does not want the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and when push comes to shove they will fight to the death in order to gain and maintain independence from God. The ungodly residents and leaders of such towns and cities concede to paying some slight degree of respect to “religious people” in their towns thus not making a fuss over such signs, but they are quick to tell you it is all tokenism totally lacking in substance. And, they are right.

The Second Psalm gives us further insight into the foolish thinking of rebellious humanity. People actually believe there is sufficient strength in their numbers to subjugate God to their own will. Thus, in their coming together as one they become convinced mankind can wrest independence from God.

The quest for unity is almost as old as man. After the flood the descendants of Noah refused to spread around the world and instead gathered in the Plain of Shinar (modern Iraq) to build a tower “reaching to the heavens” as a demonstration of their unity and resulting independence from God (Genesis 11). In an effortless act of causing confusion of languages God foiled their plans and the human race was dispersed as God intended it to be.

We see the same kind of efforts at global unity today. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg, one of the two most liberal justices on the bench, is a strong advocate for using foreign law and norms to set judicial precedent in American legal opinions. In the current presidential race one candidate is constantly calling for unity — not national unity, but international! In his opinion Americanism is out and globalism is in. The Visa™ and McDonalds™ commercials during the Summer Olympics emphasized global unity as they called for the ignoring of national borders while emphasizing the international brotherhood of humanity. Illegal aliens are no longer illegal aliens, but are simply immigrants “seeking a better life” while they flaunt their abhorrence of American law.

The past is precedent for God’s future involvement in the affairs of the race. At the proper time He will once again step in, take control and do exactly what He said He would do — all without regard to global human protests. It is nothing less than amazing that man’s rulers and kings actually believe their being unified in their rebellion against God is sufficient to stop Him dead in His tracks; that mankind, in their unity, can dictate their own way of living and that God is not only not wanted, but not needed.

At times it is difficult for Christians to live with what we see around us...outright hatred for God, His word and His people. At times we stare at the open blasphemy and cringe as some president-wanna-be states Jesus is only one of many ways to God. Though the frequency of such attacks and the intensity of the battles are increasing we are not unduly alarmed, because the prophetic Word has laid the entire scenario out for us. In light of recent events in the Middle East and the Caucasus region it appears it is just about over. And then this rebellious, God-hating world system will get exactly what it has wanted since the beginning — God will remove both His church and His providential hand of blessing from this planet. Reminds me of the dog that has been chasing a truck — he won’t like it when he catches it. DLM