00:08
Welcome everyone. This is Russ Scalzo Chronicles of the End Times. Thank you for being with me today. Today we're going to discuss a few things. Look at a few topics that are in the news.
00:20
Would love to know your opinion of the Olympic Committee's decision to let the LTGBQ community do a disgusting display of the Last Supper. This is a sacred moment for Christians. This is just before Jesus laid down his life, allowed himself to be beaten to the point where he was unrecognizable, then put on display hanging on a cross in front of a mocking yelling crowd. To those of us who have been delivered from many things in life and brought into the peace of God, this mocking display is not only hurtful but enraging. I like to read a Facebook post from a good friend of mine, the Reverend Patrick Mahoney. I think it is right on the money and appropriate. I quote. “Of course, one is free to air their artistic expression in the public square. However, what if that expression is disrespectful, bigoted, intolerant, cruel, and hurtful to a certain faith tradition, in this case, 2.4 billion Christians around the world? It is. In my sense, we should be building a more tolerant and open world instead of sowing seeds of intolerance and division.
01:35
As a Christian, and specifically as a Presbyterian minister, I found the presentation to show utter disrespect, cruelty, and intolerance towards the Christian faith. To put this in context, would the Olympic Committee have featured such a presentation, with Mohammed and his followers as drag queens? I think you know the answer to that. Or a presentation which the LGBTQ community found cruel and intolerant? Again, you know the answer. I find it ironic that a presentation and a group that is striving to provide a vision of tolerance and acceptance would create such an intolerant and disrespectful display for the Christian community and the world. In the future, perhaps the first step forward would be having a dialogue with Christian leaders to understand what their thoughts and feelings might be on such a display. Communication and mutual respect seem to be the best foundation for diversity. The Olympic Committee, shame on you for not being more thoughtful or understanding regarding the opening ceremony.” I think that's very well said. That's why I chose to read it verbatim.
02:43
I think it's important to understand the nature of things. When the church continues to go backward and is ashamed of sticking up for itself and, more importantly, ashamed of Jesus Christ and his words, things like this will continue to grow. The enemy, that is the darkness all around us will continue to push forward when there's no pushback and take as much spiritual territory as we will allow. And this is just another example of that.
03:13
We don't talk about judgment anymore. We don't talk about hell anymore, because most people don't believe in it, even Christians. But if we really love Jesus Christ, truly love him, can we accept such displays of disrespect for the God who made all things? If we love someone and they're precious to us, do we want them to be mocked in front of the entire world population? How would that make us feel if that was one of our children or someone we cared about deeply, being mocked in front of billions of people across the world? I challenge all of us today, are we Christians by name only because we're not Jewish, Muslim, or Buddhists? Is that just our label? Because we don't have any choice. Unless we declare ourselves atheist or agnostic, I suppose we have to fall into some category. So, I guess I'm a Christian.
04:12
I'd like to read something out of the Gospel of John, chapter 1. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
05:04
To the shock of many, we are not all God's children. That is a lie, just because we are humans, and the Bible says we are made in the image of God. If we want to become children of God, we must be born again. Two things happen. We are born into this world, we're born of the flesh, but to become a child of God we must become born again. We must confess our sin to Jesus Christ, we must know him, meet him face to face, as it were, and that changes our lives. We fall in love with Jesus Christ because we're in his presence and we realize who he is.
05:46
John the Baptist was a witness for Jesus Christ. He was the prophesied Elijah who was to come again. We are also witnesses. A witness who gives a false witness is not useful. Jesus said if we declare his name before the world, that he will declare our name before the Father. Sounds fair to me. So as the days get darker, we should be getting brighter. We are all born with a spirit inside of us and that is an eternal spirit. That is how we begin life, and that spirit must be born again. That spirit needs to be changed if we're going to be children of God, and I pray today that we will all reevaluate where we are with Jesus Christ.
06:38
Are we ashamed to take up our cross and follow him? What does that mean? That means, are we afraid to be associated with him and the things that he said? John goes on to say that the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
07:02
We either believe that or we don't. We either believe all things were made through him or we don't. We either believe he is God incarnate in the flesh which is what John is talking about here and that he is the only way to salvation. We can't compromise that and say, oh yeah, that's cool, you know, whatever you believe, you know all roads lead to heaven. No worries, man, we will have to answer for that type of false witness. We need to be the true witness. It doesn't mean we have to be nasty and arrogant. No, it just means we need to be more like Jesus. Let's make a covenant that we're going to pray against the darkness because it is affecting our children, and children, throughout the world. Don't let the enemy put your light out. This is Russ Scalzo for Chronicles of the End Times. God bless, keep looking up. The King is coming.
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