World Affairs
The term “denial”, although often thought of as a negative concept, can have both positive and negative connotations. From a positive standpoint, Scripture teaches us about the need for us to deny ourselves in order to please God. This is addressed in the 9th Chapter of Luke, verses 23 - 26:
23 Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
25 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost?
26 For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father's, and of the holy angels. NKJV
Here Jesus is teaching us about the reasons we should be willing to deny ourselves and place ourselves in a position of complete obedience to His Word and rely on His promises. He is also warning us that this decision will create many hardships for us as we commit to following Him. In fact, He warns that this decision might cost us to lose our lives. But He assures us that the decision will be worth it in the end.
Also, in the 2nd Chapter of Titus, verses 11 – 14, we are again reminded that through the denial of ungodliness and worldly lusts we can look forward toward the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our Savior, Jesus Christ:
11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works. NKJV
Each of these Scriptures, along with others, addresses the positive aspects of denial, that Christ expects us to deny ourselves the worldly distractions to our commitment to Him. Unless we are willing to do so, He makes it clear that we cannot expect to spend eternity with Him.
But then, of course, there are also negative connotations to the term. Usually this is an expression relating to those who, clearly facing the obvious, choose to ignore the facts and believe otherwise.
Although this could be a positive approach, such as when choosing to exercise faith in God against some sickness or unfavorable condition, that God will perform a miracle. This is usually expressed as holding out in faith, rather than be in denial of the obvious. Of course, God is able to work miracles against whatever obstacles we face and we should be assured of His expressed desire that we continue to trust Him despite the opinions of others.
But, otherwise, there are many who refuse to believe what is based on proven facts, egotistically choosing to believe their inner instincts, or, perhaps more accurately, their egos. Some people simply have more confidence in their own egos than what has been proven by others. What they fail to realize is that denial of the obvious is the entryway into delusion. But most of these are hardly concerned about the threat of delusion.
Attempting to convince those in denial is usually pointless, as those who are in rebellion against truth will repeatedly put up roadblocks to prevent their understanding and acceptance of points being expressed. Also, to many people, winning the argument is more important than being right, or truthful. Or, their desire to win an argument is greater than their desire to admit the truth. And some people value their own intellects more than they value the truth.
This is all clearly a factor in our present dilemma wherein we are faced with a clearly-divided nation. Those on one side are convinced that they are right in their approach to changing our nation into a Socialist State, while those on the other side are convinced that America has been successful because of our values and our ordinances as defined and established by our founding fathers. Even though this form of government has been uniquely successful, greater than any other government in history, the movement to change to another form of government persists.
What clearly seems to be a form of denial is that the forms of government that are being proposed as more advantageous have been proven time and again as complete failures by virtually all standards, including individual freedom for citizens, financial stability, productivity, poverty levels, security, freedom to worship, and many other criteria. The only criteria that seem to be advantageous for our leaders is that what is being proposed would offer them extremely greater, actually complete, control over the citizens. While this might seem advantageous for the leaders, it offers nothing but misery for the citizens.
Nevertheless, there is much support by many citizens for an overall change to this form of government. Other than their being “in denial”, what could possibly cause American citizens to favor the surrender of their rights in order to bring themselves under complete subjection by this form of government? Are they in denial regarding their ability to trust our leaders to make this work to their advantage, or in denial that this form of government is better than what we now have?
And then, of course, there are many Christians, those who should realize from reading Scripture relating to the treatment of Jews throughout history as well as many other warning signs, who are in denial regarding the extent to which these proposed changes will affect their ability to worship freely. As a result, placing their support for their political parties above their commitment to God’s Word, they blindly follow their leaders in supporting the proposals that would take away their freedom to worship, along with many other freedoms, and diminish their total lifestyles.
Some Christians attempt to justify their support for Socialism by explaining that it takes care of the poor through taxes, as if this is the government’s responsibility instead of the church’s responsibility; while the church enjoys the benefit of a tax-exempt status as a result of the 501(c)3 tax exemptions.
Unfortunately for those who would prefer to know the truth, our mainstream media won’t report the truth about Socialism, which is to take away the freedoms of the people, an agenda with which the mainstream media is apparently complicit. Most people trust the media for their information and won’t do their own research. Therefore, the goal to “change” our nation into a Socialist country is succeeding with little resistance.
But Christians who are in favor of Socialism, which would eliminate their right to worship freely, along with the loss of many other freedoms, either:
1. Don’t understand Socialism, or
2. Don’t understand God’s Word, or
3. Perhaps are pretending to be Christians
Also, many Christians interpret Scripture to their own advantage. And many Christians have an “easy way out” fantasy. But it has been said that if you input propaganda and misinformation into your mind, your conclusions will be wrong. After all, belief does not establish truth; and denial certainly does not alter the truth.
www.zeal4truth.org
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