One of these dates changed the lives of thousands of people, while the other date impacts all people, past, present, and future.
Today I had a conversation with a brother I hope to one day be able to call a brother in Christ. Unfortunately, today I can’t say that. I can’t say that while heeding the wisdom and knowledge of one of the original disciples of Christ. One that heard numerous teachings of Christ in person and witnessed many of the things that Christ said and did, which we are told were too numerous to be documented.
15 Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. 16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. 17 But whoso hath this world’s goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? (1 John 3:15-17)
The brother I spoke with today called himself a Christian while condoning the genocide of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government. A genocide being carried out by means of militarism and starvation. I tried reasoning with him on the basis of Christ being the great equalizer of all men in that He shed His blood for the redemption of all humans, which includes Palestinians. I stress that this conversation is being held with someone that acknowledges that Christ died for them when they were worthy of death, because they were guilty of breaking every command of GOD.
10 For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. (James 2:10)
I also mentioned to him that the atoning blood of Christ has brought a season of amazing grace where the Lord is inviting all nations and all tongues, along with the heathen and the religious, for an opportunity to be redeemed. I thought surely, I was beginning to reach him and then he made it clear to me that the truth I spoke had not penetrated his shell of cold love. He replied, “What about October 7th?” He justified the annihilation of tens of thousands of noncombatant women, children, and men as GOD’s judgment for October 7th. For those unfamiliar, on October 7th, 2023, a pro-Palestinian militia group called Hamas, killed 1,200 Israeli people, and took around 250 hostages. In response, the Israeli government has killed over 60,000 Palestinians in Gaza and destroyed nearly 70 percent of all infrastructure which includes hospitals and schools (data source Statista). Upon realizing the chasm between our values, we mutually backed off of the conversation.
Later when I arrived home and reflected on the conversation I thought how could he consider himself a worshiper of Christ and consider October 7th a greater debt than the debt paid for on Calvary. YAHWEH the Almighty GOD considered the surrendered life and battered and bloodied body of His sinless and only begotten son worth enough to redeem the lives of every human ever born. I would think that everyone who identifies as Christian is familiar with John 3:16.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
There is a dark history of pseudo-Christians with anti-Christ ideologies that spread from Europe into North America and around the world that has leavened much of what many accept as Christianity today. This is evident in so called Christians which have supported genocide, chattel slavery, racism, and inequality in America, Apartheid in South Africa, and today genocide in Gaza, as well as genocides in some developing nations through unjust embargos. Nothing harms humanity worse than the polluting and contamination of judgment by proclaiming that which is evil as good and just. The brother I met today is a casualty of this perversion. We exchanged numbers and I gave him links to related topics at theinscridbedheart.com. There is hope for him as well as others like him while it is still called today.
theinscribedheart 
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