One of the great failures of Christians (myself included) in our modern era is our tendency to expect godly morality from people who are not godly and have no calibration for their moral compass. Particularly in older Americans who remember a culture far different than the one in which we currently reside, it's hard to remember that those who have no relationship with the light - a number increasing exponentially these days - are naturally prone to run towards darkness.
For instance, people who know that God is love will have an ability to understand why something like gay marriage won't lead to human flourishing. But those who believe that "love" is god will not.
Our job as believers is to entice them away from their natural inclination towards sin and darkness, serving as faithful witnesses of the truth. But that very rarely (if ever) means imposing godly morality through legislation, aided by the gun of government. Don't misunderstand, I am NOT suggesting that Christians shouldn't seek to legislate in accordance with God's moral law. I AM suggesting that doing so is unlikely to change the heart of those who reject that moral law.
Again, soul winning isn't done through the legislative process. It's done by faith that comes through hearing the Word, and through conviction brought by the Holy Spirit. Persuasion and evangelism is key.
What is particularly unhelpful in such efforts is when others wearing the name of Jesus facilitate the confusion and fan the fog of deception through tragically warped theology. And thanks to the advent of social media, there seems to be a deluge of it these days. Statements like this:
I have had a few exchanges with Zach and find him to be well-intentioned and genuinely a kind man. That doesn't excuse what is a rather juvenile logic and childish handling of God's word. To put it into simpler terms, what Lambert does here is the equivalent of saying that "Biblical conflict resolution" is slaying your brother in a field since that's what Cain does to Abel in Genesis 4.
The fact that an event or circumstance occurs and is recorded in the Bible does not equate to God condoning or approving of the event or circumstance. Descriptive is not prescriptive, and Lambert, who holds a degree from Dallas Seminary, obviously knows that. He knows that God was not pleased with Solomon's polygamy, and that Scripture records how that sin led to Solomon's heart chasing after foreign idols. He knows that the Bible describes in devastating detail the tragic rivalry that resulted from Jacob's polygamy and favoritism.
And he also knows that Jesus restated and reaffirmed what is "Christ-honoring," Godly marriage: "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." It doesn't get any more biblical than that.
Meanwhile, another progressive Christian voice muddied the waters with his attempted social media dunk on Babylon Bee owner Seth Dillon's tweet.
To get the full effect of this swing-and-miss, note that Dillon was himself responding to this Jesus-hijacking original post:
Obviously, Horrocks' attempted point here was that the United States should not enforce border security measures since those seeking to breach the razor wire to enter the country illegally are our "neighbors" according to Jesus. It would seem fairly obvious to any rational human being that being a biblical "neighbor" does not suddenly confer immunity to the expectations of the law.
And that's what Dillon was pointing out through a separate scenario - the thief breaking into my home at night may be my neighbor, but that does not entitle them to come into my house and terrorize my family with impunity. Biblical neighborliness doesn't demand the abolition of laws.
Dillon didn't need to use that example; it could have been any number of illegal activities. The fact that the pedophile down the street is our "neighbor" does not justify his immoral activity. I can still love them as Christ did while keeping them away from my children and demanding punishment for their crimes.
This isn't hard and yet social media theologians like Horrocks, with a political axe to grind, make it far more confusing than necessary.
Just like with Lambert, the frustration caused by how much his illogic hampers the enactment of common-sense legislation pales in comparison to the damage it does to the propagation of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
