(The following is authored by Peter Heck)
Satan may be cunning and creative, but he's utterly predictable.
- In the Garden of Eden, his successful strategy to entice Adam and Eve into sin took what form? The deceptive manipulation of God's Word.
- On the Mountain of Temptation, his failed strategy to entice Jesus Christ into sin took what form? The deceptive manipulation of God's Word.
- In our world today, his repeated and relentless strategy to entice humanity into sin takes what form? The deceptive manipulation of God's Word.
Unfortunately, with as stubbornly as Satan clings to his age-old approach, within the American church, biblical illiteracy is at an all-time high. That creates a perfect scenario for the devil. After all, if we don't first know the Word, we can't possibly defend against its hijacking.
Hijacking that comes in the form of churches and ministries promoting and recommending the unfalsifiable, criminally foolish book, "White Fragility."
Hijacking that comes in the form of churches and ministries feeling pressured into financially supporting a neo-Marxist organization that wars against biblical values simply because it has the noble-sounding title, "Black Lives Matter."
Hijacking that comes in the form of liking and retweeting posts that brutally bastardize the Word of God all to advance trendy social causes, like this:
I'll begin by saying I don't know who Jimmy Butts is; but that is largely irrelevant when considering the startling number of Christians who are incapable of articulating exactly why his words are so flagrantly anti-biblical. Sadly, this type of pseudo-theology from a man steeped in "pan-African studies" and the works of Malcolm X, gets embraced by believers desperately wanting to appear caring and loving in these anxious times.
While they may sincerely hope their affirmation will lead to brotherhood and understanding, the consequence is inexorably disastrous for the propagation of the gospel – precisely what Satan intends.
Consider, Butts is attempting to shoehorn all of Christendom into the role of a singular individual Jesus encounters who exhibits a specific problem. That's certain to produce an eisegetical nightmare from the start. His reference to the account of the Rich Young Ruler recorded in Matthew 19, Mark 10, and Luke 18, is a nothing but a prop, ripped from the sacred context of Scripture to justify a political demand for taxpayer reparations to all black people.
To grasp just how absurd of a stretch this is, realize it would be the equivalent of the Apostle Paul demanding that any Greek citizen who wants to enter paradise must offer up reparations to Jews for their oppressive treatment under Antiochus IV.
Instead, Paul wrote that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek.
For the sake of exposing the error, let's take the time to remember the account of the Rich Young Ruler as the gospels record.
- The man was seeking eternal life.
- Jesus didn't despise the man, He "loved" him.
- Jesus perceived that though he was obedient to scriptural teaching, his heart was devoted first and foremost to his wealth.
- Discerning that a man's first love cannot be money rather than God if he wants to be saved, Jesus told him to get rid of this impediment to salvation.
- The disciples of Jesus were confused by the expectation Jesus placed on this rich man given that material wealth had always been one way that God blessed His followers, and because He had never told them to do the same.
- Jesus never instructed His other wealthy friends to sell their possessions and give the money to the poor.
But Butts mutilates the passage to bizarrely set up race-based categories for who must comply with the demand Christ placed on the Rich Young Ruler. In other words, wealthy black citizens are not expected to follow the command of selling their possessions. Only white citizens, who Butts generalizes have all benefited handsomely from "generational wealth." In other words, a poor white man in Appalachia will not enter heaven if he doesn't give everything he has to a black man of means in the Hamptons. Embarrassing.
It's shocking that this man Butts is so brash as to compose such a clownish tweet. It's unconscionable that Christians would be incapable of discerning the lie.
Truthfully, the lesson we were to take from Christ's encounter with the Rich Young Ruler wasn't really about wealth necessarily. It was a warning to all who would follow Him that Jesus alone must be our first love.
What a cruel irony that in their vain attempt to leverage the story against others, Butts and his allies prove that wherever Jesus fits into their hearts, He certainly comes in somewhere behind their love of radicalism.
(Editor's Note: This piece was first posted HERE at the DISRN website. It has been posted on The Stand with permission).
