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"Detente?" by Mike Warren
Detente is a term made popular in the 1970s during the cold war between the Soviet Union and the United States. Webster defines detente as, a relaxation of strained relations or tensions. The former U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. sought common ground, an exchange of cultural missions were pursued. Detente symbolism even extended to space as the two super powers staged the great handshake between cosmonauts and our astronauts while they hurtled through space at 17,000 MPH. On earth negotiators labored to start the dismantling of each of the superpowers’ nuclear arsenal, so that we would move away from the specter of a nuclear holocaust. Mutual peaceful coexistence between enemies has a nice sound to it. Can’t we all just get along? No! It was strength, commitment and conviction of purpose, not detente that caused the U.S.S.R to fall. As Warsaw block Christians prayed, American President Ronald Regan moved to counter the evil empire of the Soviet Union with force of purpose and a massive arms build up and the unthinkable occurred. The Soviet Empire imploded and the Berlin Wall was dismantled. When evil is exposed and stood against, it is unable to continue. The principle is found in Proverbs 28:1, The righteous are as bold as a lion the wicked flee when no one pursues them.” So I ask, why does the Christian Church seek mutual peaceful coexistence with the evil empire of the abortion industry and the depraved agenda of humanistic political leaders? It is an impossible goal that can never be achieved. Seeking peaceful coexistence with sin always proves to be a deadly and tragic mistake. Entertaining the idea that some methods of abortion are less evil than others is dangerous and deadly. Can we really have detente with clean, neat and private chemical abortions, (a.k.a., RU 486, the morning after pill, or my goodness, some forms of birth control) and then voice vigorous opposition to late term nasty and brutal partial birth abortions and be credible? Are some forms of child killing acceptable and tolerable while others are just too uncivilized? What occurs when we begin to entertain such detente? Courage is replaced with compromise and conviction and moral clarity gives way to confusion. Soon weariness replaces zeal and we begin to look for a way out of the battle. Common ground is sought with the industry that has killed over 40 million unborn children. The end result being that the number of Christians that labor to save lives at local abortion mills decline. We begin to give into the reasonable call to disarm and become kinder and gentler in our ways. Before we give into that temptation and become silent in our culture, before we put away the graphic pictures of aborted children because we might offend someone, before we turn off the bull horns used to call out to couples blindly and naively walking into the abortion clinic to offer up their first born; read the scripture! Speaking of the great revival of Josiah in 2 Kings 23: 25-26, Now before him (Josiah) there was no king like him, who turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might, according to all the law of Moses; nor after him did any arise like him. Nevertheless the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, with which His anger was aroused against Judah, because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him, What sin would not allow God to turn from the judgment that He purposed against the nation of Judah? It is called innocent bloodshed or bloodguilt. 2 Kings 21:15-16,...because they have done evil in my sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day. Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he filled Jerusalem from one end to the another. Peaceful coexistence with evil comes with great cost. Let us never whitewash the truth in the guise of being merciful. Could our real motive be that we desire acceptance and ease more than the truth? Remember the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. Let’s show the true mercies of the Lord and seek to compel the sinner to stop their sinning and seek the forgiveness and answer that Jesus, the crucified and Risen Lord of all offers. Why does the Christian Church seek mutual peaceful coexistence with the evil empire of the abortion industry and the depraved agenda of humanistic political leaders? It happens because the Church is not some impersonal entity or institution but rather made up of individual members such as you and I. Our personal commitment to holiness and integrity is where the church’s ability to effectively counter a hedonistic culture comes from. Do you remember the disintegration of the Space Shuttle Columbia over the United States of America in February of 2003? What began as a seemingly meaningless piece of foam insulation striking the leading edge of the wing, ended in fiery disaster! Christians that seek to counter the drift of our culture into humanistic, hedonistic and barbaric practices are in many cases on the leading edge. We are in dangerous places in the Spirit! Any detente we pursue with evil and sin can have catastrophic results in our lives, for the devil is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Any sin that we seek to live peaceably with, to make a friendship with, will open a crack in our spirit and soul that the enemy will seek to exploit. Sin in all of its forms is progressive and deadly. Something must give. When we seek detente with any form of sin whether it takes shape as small compromises of God’s injunctions, a habit we know to be harmful to us, or an attitude contrary to the teachings of Jesus, that sin grows and seeks more and more influence and control. How can we stay sharp and effective in our warfare and not succumb to the siren’s call to ease and peace when there is no peace? Relationships! It is so important to be a humble person who is in right relationship to a church and to spiritual authority. When we pursue relationships that will hold us accountable to holiness, honesty and commitment, we find protection and safety that extends beyond ourselves; even to our children, our spouse and our ministry. We then become members of the body of Christ that can be used as salt and light in our sphere of influence; in our homes, our churches and then in our communities. As our personal walk with Christ comes into line with His life in us, it is then and only then that the corporate body of Christ, The Church, can be all that Jesus intended it to be; An Army which the gates of hell can not prevail against.
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