Will You Stand?

Christians left, right, and center are compromising their beliefs—too afraid to take a firm stand. Peer pressure isn't something only youth face. From old to young, Christians are hesitant to stick up for their convictions. No one wants to be looked down upon, so it takes great courage to take a controversial stand. The "pressure" isn't even necessarily from peers—though it might be. It could also be a young adult desiring the respect of a grandparent, potential employer, or professor. Unfortunately, it is the rare Christian who is willing to risk everything to defend his beliefs.

Despite wanting to be liked or fit in, Christians should not fit into the world. Romans 12:2 tells Christians that they shouldn't conform to the world but rather have their minds transformed and renewed. Jesus explains the concept of being separated from the world in John 15.

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

The first step to standing up for your beliefs is recognizing that even though you want to fit in with others, the reality is that by the very nature of being born again, you are not of this world. You are of the Kingdom of Heaven. You should be different.

Is losing favor with the world a sacrifice? Yes—and no. It is in the sense that since people want to be liked, they are choosing to give this up to honor God. However, in some aspects it isn't a sacrifice when considering the only reason Christians must be different from the world is because they are destined for eternity in heaven. They've chosen to make their home in another world, so it only makes sense that they would not fit in on this earth. "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come" (Hebrews 13:14). You wouldn't expect the Native Americans to understand the cultures of the Englishmen back in the 1600s? or the hobbits of Middle Earth to get along very well in the Star Wars galaxy, would you? Even the elves were different from all the other beings in Middle Earth, because they were destined for another place, separated from the rest of their present dwelling. So why hope that Christians could be friends with the world when they are different at the core of their beings?

However, in the sense that it is a sacrifice, is it worth it? I would have to say that it is. After all, our savior gave His life so that we could be different. The sacrifice of not being liked by the world is nothing compared to the sacrifice of His very life.

This is the conclusion that California college junior Isabella Chow came to when faced with supporting the LGBT agenda in late October. As a student senator at UC Berkeley, she was asked to vote pro-LGBT, but she refused, based on her Christian beliefs. She provided a five paragraph statement explaining her views, and clearly explained how she felt about people involved in the LGBT movement. “I have said, and will always say, that discrimination against or harassment of any person or people group is never, ever okay” (Lee). The onslaught of criticism Chow received for abstaining from the vote was tremendous. Sophia Lee, reporter for WORLD Magazine, describes it this way:

Heads turned when Chow walked across the campus, and her cell phone beeped with social media alerts. Disaffiliation notices piled into her email inbox. Online, people compared her to the KKK and called her “a terrible example of Christian hypocrisy.”

Despite the intense attacks from every direction she faced, thanks to the prayers and support of her fellow Christians, Chow remained steadfast in her conviction to not give in to the pressures. Her world was turned upside down, and she is still battling the results of her decision. Her sacrifice was great. Nevertheless, Chow refused to cave. She knew that she must stand for her beliefs, even if it meant losing her position in society.

Similarly, the American missionary, Andrew Brunson, who was recently released from 21 months in Turkish prisons, was willing to sacrifice everything—including his very life, to stand strong for Jesus. He was quoted as saying "Sometimes it's harder to live for God than to die for God. I would rather have been in heaven than in prison" (Belz). In fact, he considered himself a "living martyr" (Belz). While imprisoned, he remembered Richard Wurmbrand, who endured years of torture at the hands of the Romanian government, and later founded Voice of the Martyrs. Wurmbrand had praised God through his continued struggles, and Brunson imitated him by dancing before the Lord in his cell (Lee). Despite the extreme hardship he faced, he made the difficult choice to continue his stand for Christ.

Over the years, many Christians have chosen to defend what they know to be right and true, at great personal cost. But the majority of Christians often fail to honor their Lord in this manner. Their fear holds them back. Don't you think Jesus was afraid of the pain and separation from His father at the cross? Don't you appreciate His sacrifice made especially for you?

Maybe you're currently in a situation where you have to make that hard choice to stand for God or not. Maybe soon you'll find yourself in a place like that. Only you can decide what to do, but know this: there is no sacrifice you can make that even compares to Jesus' sacrifice for you. Christians are called to be a light in this world—to be different. The Christian life is anything but easy, but as Paul said in Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Sacrifice now to honor your God. Make that hard choice to do what you know is right. Just as Brunson was encouraged by Wurmbrand's example, so Christians everywhere can draw strength from the stand of Isabella Chow. Will you be one of the few who will step up to the plate, prepared to be a "living martyr?"

Will you stand?

Belz, Mindy. "'A Living Martyr.'" WORLD Magazine. 24 Nov. 2018: 37-42. Print.
Lee, Sophia. "Convictions and Consequences." WORLD Magazine. 20 Nov. 2018. WORLD Magazine Web. 3 Dec. 2018.

Remember the Bible?

Remember that thick book at the bottom of your TBR stack? The one you look away from whenever you see it, guilt plaguing your mind? I really should read it. I know I should . . . but I'm too busy. I have to update my social media status first. Then I'll read a bit.

Two hours later: Well, I guess it's too late now. I'm really tired and have to get up early tomorrow for work, and then there's that birthday party I'm going to afterward. I won't have time tomorrow, but I'll be at church Sunday so that's alright.

So often in today's American culture a family might own ten Bibles. The majority of them sit on a shelf collecting dust, and maybe one per family member rests on a bedside table to be used twice a week. Reading the Bible frequently seems like a chore. Something that should be done, but is more of a task to get over with than the privilege that it is. Compare this to the 1400s and early 1500s in England.

Each week people would attend church services spoken in a language they were unfamiliar with. The Bible would be read in Latin and interpreted by the church who changed the meaning to match its own agenda. Translating the Bible into English was forbidden. People didn't own a single Bible they could understand. They weren't able to study the Bible at leisure. If they were caught with an English Bible, their punishment would be death. In 1519, seven fathers were burned at the stake for teaching their children the Lord's Prayer in English (Piper). Stop and imagine that for a moment. Parents wanted their children to understand what they were praying, and they were murdered for this.

Why? Why would the church execute Christians, seeking to read the Bible and understand it? Wasn't the church supposed to want people to learn more about God? No. The church wanted people to hear specific things about God (some of these things altogether faulty), and think they knew God. The church was unwilling to lose the power it held over people by making them believe they were saved by good works.

Enter into the scene: William Tyndale.

As Pastor John Piper, founder of desiringGod.org, summarizes Tyndale's life, Tyndale was “always singing one note.” His single-minded focus in life was getting the Bible translated into the common tongue and the hands of every person in England. In Tyndale's famous declaration, he audaciously stated his ambition: “I defy the pope and all his laws . . . If God spare my life ere many years, I will cause a boy that driveth the plow, shall know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”

Tyndale recognized the importance of people reading the Bible for themselves. Mastering several languages, Tyndale devoted his life to translating the Scriptures to English, despite being wanted by the law and living in exile in Germany for it. Upon completing the Greek New Testament, Tyndale smuggled at least 3,000 copies into England. After studying Hebrew, he published a revised edition of the New Testament in 1534, as well as translating parts of the Old Testament. Piper explained that Tyndale's translations were so accurate, many of his exact translations have remained through today. He estimates that the English Standard Version of the Bible (the translation I primarily use) is over 70% of Tyndale's direct work. Tyndale's Bible was certainly the basis for both the King James Version and Geneva Bible.

While Tyndale dedicated every moment to translation and distribution of the Bibles, the church in England retaliated and burned as many of his Bibles as they could find. Because people had accessed the Scriptures and read them for themselves, more and more started standing against the church's contrary teachings and for the truths they found in the Bible. The number of martyrs grew—for doing nothing more than reading the very book you have three copies of sitting on your shelf, virtually unused. It's a shocking revelation to realize that simply owning only one of what you have multiple copies of would have made you a martyr a few hundred years ago.

Tyndale never was able to complete the Old Testament translation, because he was betrayed by Henry Philips, who Tyndale had thought was a good friend, and arrested in May of 1535 for heresy. The generally accepted date of his strangling and burning is October 6, 1536. While the exact year of his birth is contested, Tyndale was somewhere around the age of 40. He'd spent 12 years of his life in exile, and a long, hard twelve they were. Tyndale died so you could have the Bible in your own language. So that you could read and study it—not leave it lying somewhere unused. Allow George Mueller to remind you of the value of studying the Bible from his own life:

“I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God, and to meditation on it. . . . What is the food of the inner man? Not prayer, but the word of God; and . . . not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.”

The next time you see your Bible shoved in between the dictionary and the edge of the shelf, take some time to pull it down, dust it off, and read. Remember the sacrifices people made for the same privilege you have in abundance. America is still a free nation, and you still can access the Bible everywhere you turn. It's an honor. And a command. “Blessed is the man . . . [whose] delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1.1-2). Remember what a treasure the Bible is.

Note: Another post I wrote on a similar subject as reading your Bible is one of my favorites, Dear God, Where Have You Been?

Piper, John. “Always Singing One Note—A Vernacular Bible.” Desiring God Conference for Pastors. Desiring God. 31 January 2006. Conference Presentation.