Christian Culture vs Cancel Culture
Christian Culture vs Cancel Culture
Sunday, April 11, 2021, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
The Cancel/woke culture is serving artificial fruit. None of us would think of trying to find life-giving nourishment from a bunch of artificial grapes---it is obvious that life-elements are not there. They did not grow on a branch that was nourished by the vine; they were never wet with dew, nor kissed by the sun! they are not grapes.
As Paul charged Timothy in 1 Ti. 1:18, we the church must war a good warfare against these evil forces which have purposed to destroy the Christian bible Culture and our constitution which was based on Judeo/Christian values.
1Ti. 1:18This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.
Christian character is measured by love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance, against which there is no law (Gal. 5:22-23).
These nine Christian virtues or graces are produced in the believer by the indwelling Christ. The possession and manifestation of this fruit is Christian character.
If we the church do not walk in integrity and Christian character, the world’s culture will not respect us. Even though we speak with the tongues of men and angels, our Christian brothers and sisters will not respect us. We can serve God and be lacking in essential Christian character. This character is the fruit by which we are known. What we are glorifies God much more than what we do for Him.
The gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit should not be confused. One is a means to and end; the other is the end. Paul when writing to the Corinthians made this clear:
1Co. 12:7he manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.
Eph. 4: 1-3: I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
The gifts are given---Eph. 4:12- For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come---in the unity of the faith…Unto a perfect (mature) man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; that we henceforth---be no more children…But speaking the truth in love, may grow up unto Him in all things.
The gifts are given to us for the purpose of taking us through the growing up period (while the fruit of the Spirit is being perfected in us), until we reach maturity! But, if we mistake gifts for fruit, we shall stop short of maturity and bring no fruit to perfection.
Because of the precious manifestations of the gifts, talents, blessings and ministries, people tend to focus on the manifestations and forget their purpose. As we are led by the Holy Spirit and Christ’s nature is being perfected and manifested in us---then the ministration of the gifts profits us. The supernatural power of Christ flows through the gifts; but without the character of the fruit of the Spirit, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal (1 Co. 13:1).
A great deal of refining and purifying must be worked in us by the Holy Spirit before we can really glorify God by our daily walk. It is good to be a Christian, even a weak one; but our aim should be to glorify God in this life. In Paul’s letter to Titus, he exhorts us to adorn the doctrine of God by our conduct. Titus 2:10… to show all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things
Service is what we do for Christ. Fruit is the manifestation of what we are, or what he has done in us. Soul-winning is the fruit of our labor, but it is not the fruit of righteousness, or Christian character. Soul winning cannot be attributed to the labor of a single individual; whereas the fruit of the Spirit is produced in the individual.
Paul said, “I did the planting. Apollos did the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow. So, neither planter nor waterer counts, but God alone who makes the seed grow, Still, though planter and waterer are on the same level, each will get his own wage for the special work that he has done. We work together in God’s service (1 Co. 3:6-9).
How can the planter or the waterer or the reaper take credit unto himself? Let us not make the mistake of thinking that service is fruit. It is possible to render service, and yet be lacking in the fruit of the Spirit. However, if service is really to glorify God, it must be coupled with Christian character.
We the people with we the church are facing a new cultural spirit of the age. At first most of us thought it was deranged people acting and saying ignorant things; but no, it is now mainstream. The mainstream media gives credence to it every day and gives power to the demons by reporting on it. The new name is “Cancel Culture.” Its intent is to cancel the Christian Bible culture, exert social pressure to create a new culture and erase the Judeo/Christian history of our nation.
Merriam: Cancel Culture, the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.
Social pressure then puts us under rules and laws invoked by our government, media, and business establishments. This same social pressure was applied through fear during the COVID pandemic. This same social pressure will now be applied as the C.D.C. has declared racism a serious public health threat. This same social pressure is applied in Blue states where ministers are arrested for having public services.
We the Church must begin now to expose this demonic attack as another minion of the spirit of antichrist to cancel the sovereignty of our nation and destroy the Christian Bible Culture which is the Church.
Our social, educational, and cultural life can lift us above the plane of the savage, but cannot deliver us from the “law of sin.” Our government and its take-over of our rights cannot free us from the passions and appetites of the flesh that enslave us! Only the power of Christ operating in our lives can do that.
Unless we are born from above and made a new creature in Christ, we cannot bring forth the fruit of righteousness. The best that can be wrought in man by human culture, education, social and moral reforms, is only an imitation of the Christian virtues.
New flash: Our government will not take care of us. Our government is not our security. They are not protecting us from foreign invasion. Our constitution no longer protects us because we do not have law enforcement in our Justice Department. The present government purposes to change our social culture by social pressure.
Our government and media are using an ancient Greek argument, Sophism. This is an erroneous argument, especially one used deliberately to deceive. A sophist is a person who reasons with clever but fallacious and deceptive arguments.
Many today are misled by the sophistry of this world, and have a very muddled concept of what is right and wrong. They have devised a moral (?) standard that suits themselves. Paul calls them “Plausible sophists who are seared in conscience.”
1 Ti. 4:1-2: The spirit speaks expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
When we are born of the Spirit of God and made new creatures in Christ, our conscience too is renewed. We receive the consciousness of the moral goodness or badness of our conduct and motives, together with the feeling or obligation to do or to be good. Now this faculty, if it is not obeyed, can become calloused or seared, and this is exactly what has happened to many. It is on the Church to preach and teach consciousness of moral goodness.
1 Timothy 1:19-20: Holding faith, and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. (K.J.V.)
It is a serious matter to neglect the warnings of conscience. When we put away a good conscience, we make shipwreck of our faith. Paul warned the Christians in his day of the danger of sophistry. In his letter to the Ephesians, he exhorted them to avoid all forms of evil, and then said: “Let no one deceive you with vain arguments.”
Eph. 5: 3-7: Fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not be partakers with them. (K.J.V.)
Isaiah 5:20: Woe to them who call good evil, and call evil good, who make out darkness to be light and light to be darkness, who make out bitter to be sweet and sweet to be bitter (Moffatt).
The sophists, with their deceptive, subtle arguments were calling evil good, and good evil, and thereby deceiving the weak or unwary. This ancient and deceptive skill of Satan is now in the mouth of the beast and is deceiving many.
One of my favorites of the graces is goodness. Goodness consists not only of the moral qualities which constitute Christian excellence; it is also benevolence and kindness. This is manifest in deeds and acts of kindness---feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, comforting the sorrowing, relieving the distressed, alleviating pain and suffering---not for reward nor for the praise of men, but because of the goodness of the heart---Christ’s goodness wrought in us.
Adam Clarke’s definition of goodness is, “the perpetual desire and sincere study, not only to abstain from every appearance of evil, but to do good to the bodies and souls of men to the utmost of our ability. But this must spring from a good heart---a heart purified by the Spirit of God; and then, the tree being made good, the fruit must be good also.”
Acts 24:16: This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men.
John 15:1-2: I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
The Lord makes it very plain that fruitfulness in the believer’s life is conditional. The fruit bearing branches must be pruned if they are to bring forth more fruit. The knife or pruning hook which is used in the work of pruning the vines reminds us of the word in Hebrews 4:12: For the word is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword…and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Church we must wage a good warfare against the evil that is in our midst. Generations are judged just as individual are judged by the righteousness of God. We will be judged if we do not resist this evil.
Abide in me and I you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in Me. (John 15:4)
The church in the 20th century submitted to the Modernists, Apostate Church in the name of being socially acceptable and not offending anyone with the Holy One of Israel, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. We the church of the 21st century in order to fulfill our mandate, must not yield to the liberal, woke culture. We must wage a good warfare.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries Church
Scripture from K.J.V. and N.K.J.V.
I entered into the labors of Frances Metcalfe, Ladies of Gold; quote by Adam Clarke (1762-1832) a British Methodist theologian and biblical scholar. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I entered into their labors.