November 30, 2022
I saw a video on Twitter on Thursday
last, and it disturbed me to such a degree, that I felt moved to write my essay
this week on this topic.
The creator of this video proclaimed
that those people whose lives were taken at the Club Q massacre on Saturday
November 18, in Colorado Springs, don’t matter. That they got what they deserved
and are currently burning in hell because, and I quote, “there was no
evidence that they were Christian.”
I do not wish to repeat the
name of the person who posted such an opinion because I really have no wish to
give this person any kind of shout out at all. That would be feeding the
craving for attention, and this person clearly has had enough of that already.
But I do want to address the atrocious concept expressed in her video.
You see, I believe in God. And
if I believe there is God, I also must believe there is a satan. It’s as simple
as that. And I believe that God and satan are opposites.
One represents love, and life,
good and light, and the other hate, death, evil, and darkness.
I have read my Bible, more
than once. I have read all the words printed in red in the New Testament
several times. I challenge anyone to show me where Jesus said anything, at any
time, that can be considered a message of hate.
Of course, none will be found.
He wouldn’t have done so because He is love and life and good and light.
Jesus never lied, and He never hated. He did not counsel those who are
persecuted to pick up an AR-15 and have at it, as one woman has famously said;
He told us to turn the other cheek. In fact, while I try not to judge anyone, I
will say that any person who suggests that Jesus would have used such a weapon
under any circumstance needs to read God’s word again, because they clearly
didn’t get the message the first time.
I am angry because once more people
who are not of love and life and good and light have used my faith as an excuse
for their hate-fueled actions. That offends me. I know this anger inside me is
not a bad thing. It is, in fact, a righteous anger.
But I do not hate the woman
who posted that message. Nor the one who suggested the AR-15. I do not hate
those who spread these vile ideas to others. I do not hate anyone, regardless
of being angry because of what they have done.
Jesus also told us to pray for
those who spitefully use us. And as I do just that, it’s not anger I feel so
much as it is pity.
I feel pity for those souls
who were hurting, and were hungry, who were vulnerable, and who longed for
something and for someone to hear them and help them… and believed the lies
that have been fed to them by those who consistently and yes spitefully use
them and their emotions for their own purposes. I feel pity for them because
the time will come when they will see the lies for what they are, and they will
feel a great weight of misery. They will know they have been deceived and used
and they will suffer even more than they already have, because of it.
And I know, yes, I
know, that no person can judge whether or not another is a “Christian”,
that is, whether or not they have Christ within them, because that is truly a
matter only between that person, and God.
That said, one can observe the
fruit on the tree and know if it is good, or not. God did not leave his people
powerless against the forces of evil in this life. He gave them many gifts to
help them, including the gift of discernment. Discernment is that skill which
allows us to recognize the difference between, say, love and hate.
The astute among you might at
this point say, “hey, wait a minute, Morgan. That sounds kind of like the
message you said disturbed you.” And you would not be wrong, exactly, to point out
that similarity to me.
But there is one major
difference: and that is whether at the heart of it all, the message given is one
of love and life, good and light—or of hate, death, evil and darkness.
The difference, if one
compares my words and the video that I have referred to, is really quite easy
to see. My reaction, if I believed someone truly was “burning in hell”
certainly would not be self-righteous satisfaction.
It would be grief for a
promise unmet, and a chance wasted.
Love,
Morgan
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury
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