The great evil in America for over two centuries was slavery and its ugly aftermath. Too many Christians for too long stood passive as Satan attacked the humanity of African Americans. Too few had the courage to do what Wheaton College founder, pastor, and tenacious abolitionist Jonathan Blanchard did. Here is but one example:

During their trip from Cincinnati to Galesburg, in order to observe the Sabbath as a day of rest, the Blanchard family took lodgings in a hotel in slave territory. On that Sabbath morning, just before breakfast, out in the back yard of the hotel, a slave girl was unmercifully flogged, so severely that blood from wounds in her back fell to the ground around her. At the breakfast table some of the guests of the hotel were laughing and joking about the incident. Finally, Jonathan Blanchard could stand it no longer. He arose, and was about to leave the room. Then, realizing the meaning of retreat on his part, he turned and apologized for being too cowardly to testify against their actions. Directly facing those who made light of such barbarity, he said, “For every drop of slave blood that was shed, God will require white blood!”

Then came the Civil War.

Blanchard was not alone among pastors. Charles Spurgeon spoke too in plain, bold language about the evil of slavery:

I do from my inmost soul detest slavery . . . and although I commune at the Lord’s table with men of all creeds, yet with a slave-holder I have no fellowship of any sort or kind. Whenever one has called upon me, I have considered it my duty to express my detestation of his wickedness, and I would as soon think of receiving a murderer into my church … as a man stealer.

Lest anyone in our post-racial society think that such a statement was without cost, here’s some of what Spurgeon endured:

Spurgeon’s character was assassinated throughout the Confederacy. His sermons, which in 1862-1863 sold one million copies annually, were censured. His books, which sold 1,000 copies per minute at trade shows, were publicly destroyed. Sermon bonfires illuminated jail yards, plantations, and bookshops throughout the Southern states.

Here’s another response from the citizens of Montgomery, Alabama prior to the burning of Spurgeon’s books:

We trust that the works of the greasy cockney vociferator may receive the same treatment throughout the South. And if the pharisaical author should ever show himself in these parts, we trust that a stout cord may speedily find its way around his eloquent throat.

Today, Satan remains committed to dividing people by race, but he’s also attacking other biblical truths with a delighted vengeance. For 70 years, he has been attacking with relish biblical truths regarding sexuality and marriage.

So, where are today’s pastors and political leaders who are willing to speak unpopular truths about the evil of the normalization of sexual perversion as Blanchard and Spurgeon spoke about the evil of slavery? Are today’s pastors willing to say that they “detest” “trans”-cultism and that they will “have no fellowship of any sort or kind” with those who chemically and surgically mutilate children’s bodies? Are there pastors—including pastors of the renown of Charles Spurgeon—who consider it “their duty to express their detestation” of the madness and wickedness of gender theory, same-sex faux-marriage, and sexually integrated private spaces?

I know of one political leader who recently dared to speak truth in a culture where evil is taught as good. North Carolina’s black, Republican Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson is under fire for speaking this truth in April at Asbury Baptist Church in Seagrove, North Carolina:

There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality, any of that filth. And yes, I called it filth. And if you don’t like it that I called it filth, come see me and I’ll explain it to you.

To be clear, “filthy” means “contemptibly offensive; objectionable.” So, yes, socially constructed leftist ontological and moral beliefs about homoerotic acts and cross-sex impersonation are filthy. Teaching them to children is evil.

Most conservatives can’t muster sufficient courage to oppose the wickedness leavening our culture even as children are being chemically and surgically mutilated. Many Christians have the means to homeschool, to educate their children in co-ops, or to send them to Christian private schools but choose instead to send them to government schools to be tutored by people who lack the wisdom or fortitude to oppose evil lies. Those parents are not fulfilling God’s command to “train up a child in the way he should go.”

If conservatives don’t realize that teaching children anything positive about cross-sex impersonation and homosexuality is evil, we are in deep trouble. If Christians don’t so realize, we’re in even deeper trouble. If Christian conservatives have become so worldly and deceived that they believe the chief end of man is to please the ungodly, the church is lost. If Christians believe that being a “welcoming, inclusive, and diverse” church entails silence on or affirmation of sexual sin, the church and culture are lost.

In 2014, I first wrote that the end goal of the “trans” cult is the eradication of all public recognition of sex differences. I have written that every year since 2014. Because of the ignorance, cowardice, silence, and capitulation of conservatives, that end fast approaches.

No more single sex bathrooms, locker rooms, dorm rooms, or prison cells. British Airways, Congress, and government schools are eliminating all things “gendered.” No more addressing “boys,” “girls,” “ladies,” or “gentlemen.” No more references to “sisters” and “brothers.” No more references in medical schools to “pregnant women.” Tampon machines in boys’ restrooms in elementary schools.

Our cowardice now bequeaths a neutered future to our children and grandchildren, maintained by tyrannical oppression that we should all be able to see on the darkening horizon.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Cowardice-and-The-Orwellian-Neutering-of-America.mp3

Written by Dr. Everett Piper

Ray Comfort, in his book “Spurgeon Gold: Pure and Refined,” describes Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the 19th-century preacher who ministered in the streets of London during the cholera pandemic of 1854. Spurgeon’s words, says Mr. Comfort, were pure and refined. They were rhetorical and theological gold. Spurgeon, “had the ability to take the hammer of eloquence and nail a particular truth, to pull back the veil of the eternal and give us a fleeting glance.”

Mr. Comfort continues. “Gold holds its market value. Heaven’s everlasting streets are paved with it … Gold is not meant to sit on the shelf of a rich man. If it does, then it becomes worthless. Its real value will be seen in its being spent on the cause of the Kingdom.” In other words, the gold of truth earns its value only through the spoken word and the active life of men of virtue and valor. The gold of integrity must be “spent.” It cannot be hoarded. It only earns its value if it is invested.

As COVID-19 hysteria sweeps across our nation, the tens of millions of us who still claim to be followers of Christ might do well to consider, not only these words from Ray Comfort, but also the words and actions of Charles Spurgeon of some 150 years past.

They are so good.

They are so faithful.

They are so pertinent and so prophetic.

They are gold.

One can almost hear Spurgeon bellowing from the podiums of New York City and Washington, D.C., as he did from his pulpit in Essex England — “Christians take heart! Be not afraid! Your Savior and your God, is with you! Be steadfast and immovable! Be strong and courageous! Be not afraid! Always abound in the work of the Lord!”

If you listen carefully, this man, known as the Prince of Preachers, a man with a golden tongue and a refined soul, is shouting — “Never let a crisis go to waste. Run toward the storm, not away from it. Embrace this calamity. Have courage! This is your time. This is your destiny. This is your opportunity. Shine with the light of salvation and the love of your Redeemer. Be the Church, for Jesus, himself, has told you the gates of hell will not prevail against you! Put your trust in God, not in yourselves, and not in government. Believe in His sovereignty. Walk in His grace. March with confidence in your King!”

But enough of the dross of my speculation. Hear the exact words of Spurgeon:

“At first, I gave myself up with youthful ardor to the visitation of the sick, and was sent for from all corners of the district by persons of all ranks and religions; but, soon, I became weary in body and sick at heart. My friends seemed falling one by one, and I felt or fancied that I was sickening like those around me. A little more work and weeping would have laid me low among the rest; I felt that my burden was heavier than I could bear, and I was ready to sink under it.

“I was returning mournfully home from a funeral, when, as God would have it, my curiosity led me to read a paper which was wafered up in a shoemaker’s window on the Great Dover Road. It did not look like a trade announcement, nor was it, for it bore, in good bold handwriting, these words: ‘Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation; there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.’

“The effect upon my heart was immediate. Faith appropriated the passage as her own. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on with my visitation of the dying, in a calm and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm.

“The Providence which moved the tradesman to place those verses in his window, I gratefully acknowledge; and in the remembrance of its marvelous power, I adore the Lord my God.”

Let me repeat … “Faith appropriated. I felt secure, refreshed, girt with immortality. I went on in a calm and peaceful spirit; I felt no fear of evil, and I suffered no harm!”

This is gold. Pure gold. Refined gold.

Whether it be a bad market or a bad disease, lovers of Christ should be the first to show the world that our security is not in hand sanitizers but in our Savior.

“Don’t let this crisis go to waste!” shouts Spurgeon.

Show the world what love, joy and peace, truly look like.

Show your neighbor, your city and your nation that even though we walk through dark valleys, fear has lost its victory and death has lost its sting.

Dr. Everett Piper, former president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, is a columnist for The Washington Times and author of “Not A Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery 2017). This article was originally published by the WashingtonTimes.com.

The great preacher of yesteryear, Charles Spurgeon, once said, “I do not think he [the devil] cares how many Baptist chapels you build, nor how many churches you open, if you have only lukewarm preachers and people in them.” 

Lukewarm Christians are believers who may attend Church, but aren’t completely sold out for Jesus.  They may say all the right “Christian buzzwords,” but aren’t fully committed to the Lordship of Christ.  They have one foot in the Church and the other in the world. They are “lukewarm.”

In the book of Haggai, God confronts the misplaced priorities of the Israelites, who had drifted into a way of life where their belief in God was not reflected in their living. The temple was in the process of being rebuilt after the first one was destroyed; however, they stopped after the first phase and didn’t do anything else for several years. God says in Haggai 1:4-5,

“Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways.’”

They were so concerned with their way of living that they had forgotten what God had called them to do; instead, they were “caught up” with their own wants, needs and desires. The Israelites were content to put the “Kingdom agenda” on the back-burner, while they enjoyed the things of this world.

When a believer chooses to be neither hot nor cold, the things and concerns of God are not a priority for him. When we are half-hearted, fence-straddling believers, we worship at the altar of passivity. When that happens, we forfeit our “saltiness” for the temporary delights of the world.

In 1912, the Titanic made its maiden voyage. It was the biggest ship around, and many called it “the unsinkable.” But after colliding with an iceberg, water began flooding the ship and it began to sink. Rather than the ship being on the water, the water was pouring into the ship. The Church of Jesus Christ is called to influence the world with the Gospel, but for some, the world has influenced the Church.

The lukewarm Christian sits idly by as the world sees an increase of unrighteousness.

Jesus one day saw a fig tree. It was the season for figs but there were no figs on the tree. It was barren, and Jesus cursed it. Why did He curse it? Was it because it was poisonous? No. He cursed it because it bore no fruit. It wasn’t doing anything.

In the parable of the talents, a master went away and gave to his servants various talents. Some invested their talent and received a return, but one took his talent and buried it. When his master returned, he called him a wicked and slothful servant. Had he wasted the money? Had he squandered the money? No. He simply did nothing with it.

Friend, when we choose to be lukewarm, we not only bear no fruit; we also give up the territory to Satan. God has given us a task to be salt and light and to be His witnesses across the street, across the states and across the sea. The late preacher Adrian Rogers once said, “Life is too short, eternity is too long, souls are too precious, the Gospel is too wonderful— for us to sleep through it all.”

May we wake up, repent and take back what is rightfully God’s.

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