The offence of "nice"
“The offence of the cross.” (Gal. 5:11).
I hope I’m not misunderstood in this post, but the issue I’m writing about is a part of the everlasting gospel message that has been the cause of much persecution. Many have lost their lives for saying this at a time when constitutional government was set aside and religious government reigned.
I’ve had conversations with many secular atheists who say they do not need God or the Bible because they are nice, moral people. It’s true they are somewhat nice, but they hate God and anyone who talks about Him. That is a strange kind of niceness.
In other words, they are nice only under certain circumstances. They are nice only when things are going their way; they are nice in good times only. They are nice unless you cross them.
They may not see themselves in the Bible, nevertheless they are spoken of there. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20).
I’m not attacking you, if you feel this way toward God. I don’t fully blame you for your stance toward religion and religionists. I feel a similar antipathy toward religion—at least the religion that the world has seen.
Today’s Christianity is a belligerent playmate with hard-ball politics. Catholicism and Protestantism have joined up in a confederacy against secularism/atheism/ paganism. This reconciled alliance of Christianity’s former enemies is building steam—political, legislative, judicial, and executive steam to rescind the civil liberties in the Bill of Rights and to restore powerful, ax-wielding megalomaniacal religion.
Nevertheless, whether it’s the belligerent right or the belligerent left, the people’s nice morality is the enemy of the righteousness of Christ. “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” (Phil. 3:18,19). “Nice” is not only the enemy of righteousness, but it is Satan’s humanistic, spiritualistic substitute for the gift of God.
There is no nice human who lives apart from God, whom God has not justified and sanctified.
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
And the way of peace have they not known:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom. 3:10-18).
Ethical people who don’t know God can remain ethical only for so long. Those who boast of their morality eventually slip and then their real unconverted, fallen state comes out and advertises the Bible truth of the decrepit state of natural human morality. It’s when hard times come that the truly honest man, woman, and child of integrity shines brightly, and the truly dishonest person screams its wretchedness in wrath and gnashing of teeth.
“The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.” (Deut. 28:54-57).
“Lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” (Hab. 1:6-11).
The days are coming and haste greatly when all of the good life will disappear that God has so graciously poured upon Protestantism and its civil Constitution of freedom. The U.S. Constitution is already in the process of leaving, and very soon multitudes of descendents of the Reformation, like the northern tribes of Israel, will find themselves facing the loss of all their worldly hopes and dreams.
Then how will their moral humanism stand up? What kind of “nice” people will they be like then? Rage, devil-controlled wrath. “They shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.” (Is. 13:8).
“Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.
A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans…
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.…
And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary.” (Jer. 51:53,54,58,64).
The Protestants who professed the Bible and Bible only didn’t study their Bible, if they had they would not have ended up as just a confederacy of nice people, and they would not find God plaguing them with their sworn enemy, Satan and his Papacy.
“To Me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
… And He shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.” (Deut. 32:35,37,38).
“Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto Me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.
But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.” (Jer. 2:27,28). All scripture is applicable for current instruction. Their gods may be scientific theories or sophisticated philosophies, but they are gods nonetheless.
“Nice” that hates righteousness is the nemesis of love; nice is devoid of self-sacrificing love. Only agape love that loves its enemies and prays for those who persecute and spitefully use it, is true goodness.
Nice is so empty of sweetness and warmth that “nice” wrenches the Lord’s heart. “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.” (Rev. 3:16). Nice is arrogant and full of self. It is this niceness that makes God angry.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (Rom. 1:18). Without the Spirit of God “nice” is under the maintenance of Satan. It may have a smiling face on it, but it ends in captivity to sin. Redemption never can enter where “nice” holds sway; the humbling suffering of our Creator can never break the pride and soften the heart. While the idol of “nice” remains in place God can never touch the heart and claim another soul for eternity with Him.
It was “righteous” Pharisees and “nice” Sadducees who constantly tried to trip Him and kill Him. It was nice religious people and nice pagan people who put to death the Son of God.
It was nice people who were too good for God. They lifted themselves against their Creator just like Satan had done. Of these folks Jesus said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” (Jn. 8:44).
“Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down….
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.” (Dan. 8:11,25). “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” (Dan. 11:36,37).
It’s the not so nice people that Jesus is calling. They know their true moral condition. They know that they are not good or nice. In Christ’s parable, such an honest person prayed, who, “standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. “I tell you,” said Jesus, “this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Lk. 18:13,14).
“Jesus…said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:12,13).
“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” (Lk. 15:7).
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Lk. 19:10).
“I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Is. 13:12).
I hope I’m not misunderstood in this post, but the issue I’m writing about is a part of the everlasting gospel message that has been the cause of much persecution. Many have lost their lives for saying this at a time when constitutional government was set aside and religious government reigned.
I’ve had conversations with many secular atheists who say they do not need God or the Bible because they are nice, moral people. It’s true they are somewhat nice, but they hate God and anyone who talks about Him. That is a strange kind of niceness.
In other words, they are nice only under certain circumstances. They are nice only when things are going their way; they are nice in good times only. They are nice unless you cross them.
They may not see themselves in the Bible, nevertheless they are spoken of there. “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:20).
I’m not attacking you, if you feel this way toward God. I don’t fully blame you for your stance toward religion and religionists. I feel a similar antipathy toward religion—at least the religion that the world has seen.
Today’s Christianity is a belligerent playmate with hard-ball politics. Catholicism and Protestantism have joined up in a confederacy against secularism/atheism/ paganism. This reconciled alliance of Christianity’s former enemies is building steam—political, legislative, judicial, and executive steam to rescind the civil liberties in the Bill of Rights and to restore powerful, ax-wielding megalomaniacal religion.
Nevertheless, whether it’s the belligerent right or the belligerent left, the people’s nice morality is the enemy of the righteousness of Christ. “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.” (Phil. 3:18,19). “Nice” is not only the enemy of righteousness, but it is Satan’s humanistic, spiritualistic substitute for the gift of God.
There is no nice human who lives apart from God, whom God has not justified and sanctified.
“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Their feet are swift to shed blood:
Destruction and misery are in their ways:
And the way of peace have they not known:
There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Rom. 3:10-18).
Ethical people who don’t know God can remain ethical only for so long. Those who boast of their morality eventually slip and then their real unconverted, fallen state comes out and advertises the Bible truth of the decrepit state of natural human morality. It’s when hard times come that the truly honest man, woman, and child of integrity shines brightly, and the truly dishonest person screams its wretchedness in wrath and gnashing of teeth.
“The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave:
So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates.
The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
And toward her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness, wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates.” (Deut. 28:54-57).
“Lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves.
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it.
Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god.” (Hab. 1:6-11).
The days are coming and haste greatly when all of the good life will disappear that God has so graciously poured upon Protestantism and its civil Constitution of freedom. The U.S. Constitution is already in the process of leaving, and very soon multitudes of descendents of the Reformation, like the northern tribes of Israel, will find themselves facing the loss of all their worldly hopes and dreams.
Then how will their moral humanism stand up? What kind of “nice” people will they be like then? Rage, devil-controlled wrath. “They shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travaileth: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.” (Is. 13:8).
“Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord.
A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans…
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary.…
And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary.” (Jer. 51:53,54,58,64).
The Protestants who professed the Bible and Bible only didn’t study their Bible, if they had they would not have ended up as just a confederacy of nice people, and they would not find God plaguing them with their sworn enemy, Satan and his Papacy.
“To Me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.
… And He shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they trusted, which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.” (Deut. 32:35,37,38).
“Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto Me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.
But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.” (Jer. 2:27,28). All scripture is applicable for current instruction. Their gods may be scientific theories or sophisticated philosophies, but they are gods nonetheless.
“Nice” that hates righteousness is the nemesis of love; nice is devoid of self-sacrificing love. Only agape love that loves its enemies and prays for those who persecute and spitefully use it, is true goodness.
Nice is so empty of sweetness and warmth that “nice” wrenches the Lord’s heart. “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.” (Rev. 3:16). Nice is arrogant and full of self. It is this niceness that makes God angry.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (Rom. 1:18). Without the Spirit of God “nice” is under the maintenance of Satan. It may have a smiling face on it, but it ends in captivity to sin. Redemption never can enter where “nice” holds sway; the humbling suffering of our Creator can never break the pride and soften the heart. While the idol of “nice” remains in place God can never touch the heart and claim another soul for eternity with Him.
It was “righteous” Pharisees and “nice” Sadducees who constantly tried to trip Him and kill Him. It was nice religious people and nice pagan people who put to death the Son of God.
It was nice people who were too good for God. They lifted themselves against their Creator just like Satan had done. Of these folks Jesus said, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” (Jn. 8:44).
“Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of His sanctuary was cast down….
And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes.” (Dan. 8:11,25). “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.” (Dan. 11:36,37).
It’s the not so nice people that Jesus is calling. They know their true moral condition. They know that they are not good or nice. In Christ’s parable, such an honest person prayed, who, “standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. “I tell you,” said Jesus, “this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Lk. 18:13,14).
“Jesus…said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt. 9:12,13).
“I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.” (Lk. 15:7).
“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Lk. 19:10).
“I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.” (Is. 13:12).
posted by David | 1:25 PM
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