The above is not simply the title of this brief article; it is the last question a number of people were asked just before being shot dead on Thursday October 1st, 2015.
On Monday October 5th, a stone monument bearing inscriptions of the ten commandments was removed from the grounds of the Oklahoma state capitol. The monument bearing such subversive thoughts as “Thou shalt not kill”, “Thou shalt not steal”, “Thou shalt not bear false witness”, was removed based on a decision of our own state supreme court.
I find it of interest that this depiction of the commandments was removed late at night. Why late at night? Why not in broad daylight for all to see? What other such work is done on our capitol grounds late at night?
Earlier this year, a court clerk was jailed in Kentucky for refusing to grant a marriage license to a homosexual couple. She was not simply fired, or fined, or reprimanded; she was jailed. This, after the state of Kentucky in 2004, had made an amendment to their own constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman only.
Do not be deceived into believing that any of this is about politics, freedom of speech, gun control, secular law, the constitution, separation of church & state, republicans vs. democrats vs. Libertarians vs. Communists or whatever. That’s all just so much smoke and mirrors which tends to distract us from the real issue.
All of this is now and has always been about whether we invite God into our lives, our cultures, our government and our nation or not.
There is one battle ground here, and it is not the nation, our government, the courts, public opinion, or any such thing. The battle ground is, and always has been, you.
God will eternally be God. The world will remain the world, until God dissolves it with fervent heat and a great roar as Peter wrote in 2nd Peter 3:10.
Until then, you and I must decide, “Are we Christians? Do we believe in God?”