Friday, 26 June 2009

• Torn

  I’m torn as I write this.  On the one hand, I see the talent of individuals like Michael Jackson, Elton John, John Lennon, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Martin Luther King and others, and my dear Christian friends, you cannot deny the talent.

  On the other hand, I see the lifestyle.  Elvis sang gospel music and slept with Las Vegas hookers.  Jim Morrison was a hopeless druggie and pervert.  Michael Jackson was a pedophile (settling out of court is not the same thing as being found innocent).  Elton John is a homosexual.  John Lennon was an atheistic megalomaniac who promoted promiscuity and drugs.  The married Martin Luther King enjoyed the practice of motel evangelism with white women.

  And in our misspent national priorities, we idolize these people!  We name streets and holidays after men who molest children, promote drug abuse and promiscuity, violate their marriage vows and the laws of God.

  And then when they have gone the way all life goes, we offer token prayers for them, like that’s going to make a difference.

  Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father BUT BY ME” (emphasis mine).  Not by doing good things.  Not by paying or praying after death.  Not by many paths but by one.  He said “It is given unto man once to die and after that, judgment”  No second chances from well meaning fans offering prayers and candlelight vigils.

  Evan Thomas said “(Barack Obama) is like a God…”  God said “You shall have no other gods before me.”

  God said “Marriage is honorable and he bed undefiled”.   Elvis, Martin, JFK and yes Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker thought differently.  They said God’s law didn’t apply to them.

  God named them Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.  God ALWAYS spoke in terms of a man and a woman when He spoke of marriage, and He always spoke of sex as being intended to be between those same married men and women.  He calls anything else an abomination (homosexuality) adultery or fornication (sex outside of marriage).  And Bill – it’s still sex even when there isn’t intercourse involved.

  Lest you think otherwise, I’m included in this list.  “All have sinned…” includes me.  I won’t give you the particulars, but in my life, I’ve never done drugs.

  But I’m also included in God’s other directive, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”  Thankfully, God hates sin, but loves sinners and died for them.  It’s not popular, but it’s true.  We as Christians would do well to make the distinction.  Michael Jackson may have been, as a dear friend of mine said,  “a ton of talent wrapped up in a fruitloop,” but he was still a ton of talent, and none of our self righteous indignation will ever change that.

  If anything we should realize how pitifully poor a job we’re doing reaching a lost and dying world for whom Christ died.

  
  
  

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